Rory McIlroy makes case for change of tack and fuels a few more rumours

Golfer sacks agent equals just another day in the professional game. Rory McIlroy sacks agent and the news machine goes haywire. Welcome to the new world order, where the charismatic Northern Irishman could easily be mistaken for another player of recent times who possessed the uncanny ability to make headlines by the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other.

The new Tiger Woods? After a week in which a million words have been spilled on the subject of his decision to switch business representation, even McIlroy may be inclined to agree. "I am shocked by how much interest there has been," he says of the intecheap nhl jerseysrest provoked by his switch from the high-profile, high-volume agency run by Andrew "Chubby" Chandler to the low-key Dublin-based Horizon agency run by Conor Ridge. "These things happen all the time. It just seems that with me it's made a bit of a bigger deal. I've just changed management companies and that's all there is to it. No big deal."

Except it has been a big deal, dominating the conversation on the drivingrange at the Sheshan club in Shanghai, where the first round of the HSBC Champions event will start on Thursday, and in the players' hotel.

McIlroy, who won the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, has the gift of grabbing people's attention. Or is it a curse? "I think it's best if you face up to [the attention]," he says. "I definitely don't resent it. It is part and parcel of what I do and, if you're going to try to become the best golfer in the world, this is what you have to deal with sometimes. It's not as if you have to deal with it all the time but, when you make decisions like I have, people are going to want to know why. In a way it's a nice position to be in but in another you could do without it. That's just the way it goes."

It has been just over two weeks since the 22-year-old, on arriving at New York's JFK airport from the Bahamas with his now former agent, tapped Chandler on the shoulder and asked if they could speak privately for a few minutes. The two had been together, mentor and pupil, for 10 years, a relationship that started when McIlroy was a talented kid.

It ended abruptly as he stood on the verge of becoming the most marketable, and most bankable, figure in the sport.

"It was a very difficult conversation, the most difficult of my life," he says. "Chubby has been there for me since day one. I felt like he was the best person and ISM were fantastic for me. But sometimes to progress you need to have a different view and a fresh vinfl jerseys wholesaleew on things. And this was something I felt like I needed. It was a purely business decision and nothing personal. I've got all the time in the world for Chubby and for everyone involved at ISM. It was very difficult for me but it was a decision I feel I needed to make."

There has been all kinds of speculation about McIlroy's motivation, some of it unjustly focusing on his girlfriend, the world's No1 women's tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki, who has been cast in some circles as a Yoko Ono figure.

Contrary to this misogynistic perspective, the Dane did not break up the band. McIlroy says he had been thinking of making a change for some time, long before he met Wozniacki. "It's not a decision that I've made overnight. I've thought long and hard about this and I've spoken to the people who are close to me, obviously my mum and dad, and they're 100% behind any decision that I make. I just feel like it's a good move for me."

McIlroy is less forthcoming about exactly what he discussed with his parents. Likewise the specifics of his concerns over the way his career was being managed remain off-limits. It has been said he was concerned that his brand was not being developed properly; that he had become weary with what many perceive to be a laddish culture at the ISM agency, and that his relationship with Lee Westwood, the world's No2player and another ISM client, had becometiresomely fractious.

He glides over all of the above, raising suspicions that at least some of it may be true, and chooses instead to flag up the attractions of the new management company.

His close friend Graeme McDowell has been with Horizon for four years, during which time McIlroy has been impressed by the company' efforts on behalf of its client.Cheap NFL Jerseys "I saw at close hand what a great job Conor and Horizon have done for G-Mac over the past few years and that's something that has always been there and always been in front of me."http://thelife.yours.tv/t4-topic