Rory McIlroy, the brilliant young Northern Irish golfer, appears to have the US Open Championship in the bag, going into the final round of the prestigious Major at Maryland's Congressional Country Club with an eight shot lead and fourteen under par.
But sources close to the young Irishman have expressed concerns that he might suffer a meltdown, similar to the one he had in Augusta, when he blew the lead with a triple bogey at the tenth and never quite recovered.
Opinions appear to be divided on this one, with one camp insisting that McIlroy learned a valuable lesson at Augusta, and that he isn't about to let this one slip from his grasp.
The other camp fear that McIlroy may blow it again, as reports emerge from visitors to the house he's rented close to the Congressional Country Club, that McIlroy is a bag of nerves ahead of the big one.
"He's walking around the place talking to himself," one said. "It's spooky. He's talking like he's two people and arguing with himself. Then every now and again he'll punch a door jamb or the refrigerator. And he's spending an awful lot of time running in and out of the bathroom. If you ask me, he's shitting himself. He doesn't want to let either the fans or himself down, but it's obviously driving him crazy. Even if he does manage to hold it together and emerge from all this the winner, all the prize money and endorsements in the world won't buy his sanity back. The guy looks frazzled right now."
More as we get it.
