McIlroy is surely the golfer of the decade

AS 2019 draws to a close, so too does another decade, and it’s time to look back and see who deserves the accolade of Golfer of the Decade for the past ten years from 2010.

The name of Rory McIlroy immediately springs to mind but is he actually the decade’s best golfer in terms of on course success and how does he actually rate with those who were honoured in the previous five decades?

McIlroy is a four-time major winner, collecting all his titles in a three-year period between 2011 and 2014, but five years have now passed since his last major win and he has yet to complete the Grand Slam by winning the Masters.

In the past ten years, McIlroy has also won 18 PGA Tour events which include three World Golf Championships and 13 times on the European tour, although this number would probably be higher if he was based in Europe, instead of the USA.

Rory has also appeared in five Ryder Cup teams and was on the winning side on four occasions, although his individual record in the event reads: eleven wins, nine losses and four halves, which is not that impressive when compared to his success elsewhere.

So, in summary for the past ten years Rory has won 31 times (which includes his four majors), played in five Ryder Cups and collected a whopping $50 million in prize money in the USA and €34 million in Europe.

Not bad for a lad of just 30 years of age and probably has at least another ten years at the top ahead of him, so there’s no doubt, he is the Golfer of the Decade.

Now to compare him to previous players who dominated their decades and for the purpose of this, I’m going to discount prize money because it is impossible to compare then with now, when you consider that Jack Nicklaus won 117 times as a professional yet earned just over $5 million, putting him 270th overall on the golf career earnings list.

The period from 2000 to 2009 was, of course, dominated by Tiger Woods who won 53 times in that ten years, including 12 of his fifteen majors and he completed his career grand Slam in 2000 collecting the Open Championship at the home of golf in St Andrews.

The decade before (1990-1999) was actually dominated by two players, Greg Norman (12 wins) and Nick Price (15 wins) and while Norman won one major, Price won three, but because of his consistency in finishing in the top ten practically every time he teed it up, Norman was the world No.1 ranked player for most of those ten years, and so was named Golfer of the decade.

Because of their nationalities - Norman (Australian) and Price (Zimbabwe) - neither could play in the Ryder Cup.

Like the 90s, the 80s were dominated by two players also and it’s no surprise that the names of Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros come to mind.

Watson won 19 times in the ten years including five of his eight majors but, sadly, he never managed to win the PGA championship and complete a career Grand Slam. He was, however, the dominant force in golf for that decade on the other side of the Atlantic at least and just shaded the title of Golfer of the Decade because of his haul of five majors.

On this side of the Atlantic, the genius that was Severiano Ballesteros won 38 times on the European Tour and five times in the USA, including four of his five major championships. Seve, of course, played in four of the five Ryder cups of the decade also, amassing fourteen points for team Europe and this could have been more had he been selected for the 1981 matches, but the European Tour decided to leave him out because of a dispute over appearance money.

Watson, on the other hand, played in just three of the five Ryder Cups, winning nine points for team USA.

Finally, we come to the 1970s where again two names dominated golf, namely Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino.

Trevino the self-taught former caddie who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in Dallas and never knew his father, won 29 times in the decade including four of his six majors but like Watson and McIlroy, he failed to complete a career grand slam because he never won the Masters, a tourna- ment he reckons he couldn’t win because of his inability to draw the ball. “A fade just don’t work at Augusta” he famously said as all of Augusta’s dogleg holes are left to right.

Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer of all time, in my opinion, won 37 times in the 70s (having won 31 times in the 60s) and won 8 of his 18 majors between 1970 and 1979.

There are those who will argue that Tiger Woods is the greatest, but, for me, Jack will always be number one, for two reasons: because of his haul of majors and because of the primitive equipment that he used back in the day before technology took the skill out of golf.

So, does Rory compare to those who dominated the decades before him?

Tiger with 53 wins and

12 majors is way out in front, while Seve with 43 wins is next best but then did he, Greg Norman and all the others have the amount of competition that Rory now faces, where literally any player who now tees it up is capable of winning? I’ll leave that to you to decide.