What Tiger Woods wrote in text to Rory McIlroy as golf icon held back to allow his pal to 'calm down'

Tiger Woods told Rory McIlroy that all champions have to suffer bitter setbacks.

The American star’s message of support to the Northern Irishman was clear in the wake of US Open nightmare. Woods joined the likes of Michael Jordan and Rafael Nadal in reaching out and admitted that he knew the discomfort McIlroy had gone through during and afterwards. He said: “I just sent him a nice text. That was it. I waited a week before I sent it. I wanted to let it calm down.

“I know he was being besieged by a lot of different things going on and just let it cool down for a week. Just basically, as you know, I’m your friend. I know this is a difficult moment. We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose. Unfortunately, it just happened and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there. And it’s going to be there for, I’m sure, some time. The faster he’s able to get back on a horse and get back into contention, like he did last week, the better it is for him.

“There’s a lot of times I felt discomfort. Absolutely. Nervous, shaky, uncomfortable, all of it. That’s part of it. That’s why you love it. That’s why we practice, to build up ourselves in that one uncomfortable situation and bury it.”

Asked how he handled it, Woods added: “Practice. I work hard at it and I’ve done it my entire life. I’ve worked hard to put myself there. You look at the highlights, I’ve missed plenty of putts. I’ve missed plenty of shots.

“Just like Jordan when they said: How many shots have you taken? You see all the game-winning shots, but also he’s missed a ton of game-winning shots, too. The thing is you still take the game-winning shot. And I still want the last putt.

“Probably the hardest loss to get over was the YE Yang (2009 USPGA) loss because I had the