Hunter Mahan figured out the fuss over Rory McIlroy without any help.
They first played against each other three years ago in the Match Play Championship - it was McIlroy's professional debut in America - and the 22yearold from Northern Ireland birdied the last two holes for a one-up victory in the second round.
A year later, Mahan and Zach Johnson faced McIlroy and Graeme McDowell in a foursomes match at the Ryder Cup. The Americans were three down after just seven holes and lost.
So when Mahan talked about his tough road to the final pairing at the Match Play Championship last weekend, and how he had beaten five great players to get there, he quickly added: "I've got to beat one more incredible player to win."
He did that on Sunday to capture his second World Golf Championship title. But he understands why so many people left the tournament still buzzing about McIlroy, and how much better he can get.
"I mean, he's phenomenal," Mahan said. "He's really talented. He'll be No 1 eventually. I'm not worried about it. I'm sure he's not."
McIlroy is No 2 now, but he could climb to No 1 this week with a win at the Honda Classic, or perhaps a week later at Doral. He will take a three-week break after that to get ready for the Masters, where he will be among the favourites, along with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who have seven green jackets between them.
But almost everyone believes it is just matter of time before McIlroy claims more major victories.
Since an injury scare at the PGA Championship last year, when he tried to hit a seven-iron with a tree root in the path of his swing, he had finished out of the top 10 just once in 11 tournaments.
He has a swing that is easy on the eye and packed with plenty of power. He has a keen short game, and there was no better example of that in the semi-finals of the Match Play against Lee Westwood. He pitched 20 feet away from the flag to ride the spine of a ridge, and watched the ball gently take the slope to a foot from the hole for a birdie.
He has looked suspect at times with short putts, but from outside 20 feet, just about every putt looks as if it has a chance.
The knock on McIlroy is that he has only four wins. Martin Kaymer, the 27-year-old German, who has been on tour one year longer than McIlroy, already has 10 wins, including a major and a World Golf Championship.
But the quality of McIlroy's wins cannot be ignored, including last year's US Open.
* Associated Press
Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
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Director: Monika Mitchell
Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler
Rating: 3/5
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
