It's OK. We understand. You're stuck in a rut. Every day seems as gray as newsprint, with nothing to look forward to except that warm pint of lager at the corner pub. You're like Bridget Jones, except you're a bloke.

Then suddenly you're swept off your feet by a young, handsome stranger who promises you a beautiful future filled with joy and wonder. Maybe he didn't say those things exactly, but you're sure he meant them. Soon the world looks brighter and you're leaving for work with a spring in your step, all thanks to this wonderful young man. Of course you'll want to praise him and protect him. But warm feelings of love give way to dark obsession, and you find yourself making allowances for him you would never make for anyone else and even ignoring your most deeply held beliefs to hold on to your beloved.

In other words, the Euro press needs to get over its man-crush on Rory McIlroy. It's one thing to defend young Rory against a questionable ruling at the Masters, but now Rory's getting off scot-free after disrespecting the Ryder Cup. Can you imagine the reaction of the UK press to an American insolent enough to call the Ryder Cup an "exhibition" and "not that important of an event for me"? Oh wait, we already know. The Augusta Chronicle's Scott Michaux offers a couple of examples in a pointed column about how the UK press has become apologists when it comes to their great Irish hope.

You think an American would be treated so gingerly by the notoriously biased European press that cheers in the media centre? Fat chance. Ask Hunter Mahan if he got off as lightly last summer for his clumsy second-hand analysis of the event as an over-hyped burden on the players. The Euro press wrongly assumed he would be overlooked as a captain's pick as punishment for his insolence.

Heck, Anthony Kim got skewered at a European Tour event last winter for not knowing who Europe had chosen as captain for the 2010 event.

Michaux credits McIlroy with sticking to his position on the Ryder Cup, one shared by Tiger Woods, among others. He saves his comic skewering for the UK scribes who gave McIlroy a free pass when he tipped over one of their sacred cows.

Let's just say the European Tour may soon have to employ chiropractors to tend to its media bending over backwards to defend his opinions as merely youthful naivete instead of blasphemy. They've spent so much time building McIlroy up as Europe's answer to Tiger Woods, they just never expected him to answer this question like Tiger Woods.

Maybe the UK press could use a lesson from Oprah: True love is impossible without self-respect.