It’s as predictable as it’s been often. Whenever Rory McIlroy finishes runner-up in an event, or sees a chance at victory slip through his fingers, it’s only a matter of time before a smattering of WhatsApp messages start rolling in.
“Classic Rory,” is about as positive as they’re ever likely to be, while the negative skews as far as declaring that he possesses no male genitalia, and this year the carrion seekers that make up Rory’s healthy band of detractors have had plenty to feast on.
And while it’s true that he hasn’t won nearly as much as he could’ve in the past decade or so, Jon Rahm is the only European golfer that’s even worthy of being in the same conversation as McIlroy in terms of success, in terms of ability and in terms of consistency.
Golf is unique in that, on any given day, a player ranked outside the top 2000 in the world can feasibly beat the world number one, but over an extended period of time, the true cream will always rise to the top.
It’s coming up on 16 years since McIlroy, as a 19-year-old, claimed his first professional victory at the Dubai Desert Classic, it’s 13-and-a-half years since he won his first Major Championship at the U.S. Open at Congressional, and it’s almost 13 years since he first rose to the summit of the world rankings. And it’s perhaps in dissecting the last of these three points where McIlroy’s true greatness is best seen.
In the 16 years since Rory’s first win, 14 players have held the distinction of being the top-ranked player in the world. Tiger Woods held that honour at the start and actually unseated McIlroy for a further 60-week period between March of 2013 and May of 2014. Lee Westwood and Luke Donald both had stints between 2010 and 2012, Adam Scott took over in 2014, and Justin Rose had a couple of spells in late 2018 and early 2019, but they were all seasoned veterans who enjoyed the best 18 months of their careers and rapidly fell off the pace afterwards.
It’s more accurate to compare McIlroy’s career to those of more similar vintage. Martin Kaymer was 26 when he became world number one but hasn’t won a single Tour event since winning the U.S. Open at 29. Jordan Spieth was 22 and a two-time major winner by the time he first became the top-ranked player in the world in 2015, but he’s only won twice in the last seven years and he’s fallen as low as 80th in the rankings since, only briefly returning to the top-10 once he’d slipped outside.
Jason Day is 18 months older than McIlroy, and enjoyed a golden year-and-a-bit across 2015 and 2106, winning eight times including the PGA and Players Championships, but has only won three times in the eight-and-a-half years since, and Justin Thomas, four years McIlroy’s junior, last won two-and-a-half years ago and hasn’t featured in the world’s top 10 in over 18 months.
Of the others who’ve been number one in the last 16 years, only Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler can be talked about in the same breath. Scheffler and Rahm both have several years to remain at the top of the game to be properly compared, while DJ was entering his twilight years as an elite golfer when he opted to join LIV. Koepka may be the best big game hunter over the past decade, but by his own admission he doesn’t care enough about the game to try to bring his best week-to-week.
To remain on top for as long as McIlroy has takes serious dedication, an impressive work ethic and unbreakable resolve, in addition to the extreme talent which is something that all of his peers possess to varying degrees.
Even after 38 worldwide wins, that Rory was reduced to tears once again after winning the DP World Tour Championship speaks volumes about what it means to him. Sure, the heartbreaking manner of his defeats at the U.S. Open, the Irish Open at Royal County Down, and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth cranked the pressure valve and the threat of it happening again in Dubai heightened the emotional release, but in a game where greed continues to dominate the narrative, it was refreshing to see the sense of achievement clearly take precedence.
Ok, I’m sure the $2 million first prize was welcome, but for somebody already worth $300 million and change, it’s small potatoes comparatively.
It was also a week in which he declared that playing in the Ryder Cup was a privilege he’d be willing to pay for as opposed to requiring to be paid, and though it’s easy for the detractors to again point their fingers at his bank balance and declare it an easy thing for an uber-wealthy man to say, he still said it and I for one believe it.
You see, it’s the competition that gets Rory’s juices flowing. That’s why he’s remained at the top of the game for so long.
Walking away from the press huddle at Royal County Down having just interviewed a crestfallen McIlroy who’d let a rare chance to win in his home county slip through his fingers, I recall remarking that it was hard to fathom how he continually manages to pick himself up off the floor and get right back on the horse again. Lo and behold, a week later it happens again, but was there any doubt in anybody’s mind that he’d not be there on the first page of the leaderboard for each of the final two events on the DP World calendar?
It’s now a four-win year for McIlroy, but the glass half-full approach is to say it should’ve been eight and you might be right, but lets not forget that in the history of Irish golf, no other player has ever won four times in a single year across the European and PGA Tours.
And it was already a three-win season (and almost seven) when he decided to lock himself in a swing studio for three weeks after the Dunhill Links, because he’s never been willing to concede that we’ve seen the best version of Rory McIlroy.
It’s that hunger that drives him, that hunger that sustains him, and that hunger that’s seen him outlast all comparable challengers.
Barring injury, it’s hard not to see him picking up his seventh, eighth and ninth Harry Vardon Trophies as the leading player on the DP World Tour – especially with Jon Rahm’s future unclear – and that’ll topple a record few thought would ever be seriously challenged.
Of course, that won’t matter to the Rory hate mob, who only come up for air when he’s marked in the runners-up categories, but it matters to true golf fans and more importantly, it matters to Rory.
Will he ever win another Major Championship? I don’t know. I’d love to say he will, but the clock is continually ticking and Father Time remains undefeated in the long run. I do know this, however. He’ll never stop trying, never stop believing and never stop working his ass off to put himself in position to.
And there’s much to admire in that alone.
He’s given Irish golfing fans 16 years of a sustained level of play we thought we’d never see and likely never will again.
He’ll not be around forever, and when he’s finally gone, maybe then we’ll start to appreciate what we had.
Leave a comment