Rory’s Last Shot at Greatness
Gary Player insists six majors is the minimum requirement for greatness, so with four in the bag and his 30th birthday approaching, it looks like...
AS HE waited to putt on the third green last Saturday at Carnoustie, Rory McIlroy noticed a change atop the giant Open leaderboard nearby. On six under par, the name of Tiger Woods suddenly appeared in pole position. A few moments later, Woods was marching down the nearby 15th fairway and the huge galleries following McIlroy began to drift away. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the guy now leading the Open. Was this happening? Could a 42-year-old, playing his first Open in three years after several back surgeries, be contending?
He was, thanks to three straight birdies from the ninth, and another on the 14th. Clad in black and grey, the 14-time major champion was on the march.
It was a privilege to see golf’s gnarly gunslinger march down Carnoustie’s scorched fairways, like Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon’, eyeballing the young critters.
His lead didn’t last as long on Saturday as it did on Sunday, when he was in front for almost an hour and seemed on course to bridge a 10year gap between majors and claim a fourth Open title.
And while he ultimately lost out to Francesco Molinari, who once caddied in the same group as Woods at the 2006 Masters after brother Dodo was invited to Augusta as British Amateur champion, the Tiger effect was immense.
Away from the links, TV viewing figures soared and social media sites went into meltdown as Woods threatened a comeback even greater than Jack Nicklaus at the 1986 Masters.
He didn’t get the job done but he reaffirmed his credentials back inside the world’s top 50. He’s hungry for more at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Akron this week and the US PGA Championship in Bellerive the week after.
For McIlroy, the return of Woods is a mixed blessing. While a part of him wants to trade blows with the living legend on a Sunday afternoon, getting past him is another matter. Like McIlroy, Woods is trending upwards in 2018 and appears set fair for an Indian Summer to his career.
From a headline-grabbing perspective, the prospect of Woods chalking up a 15th major is more of a story than either McIlroy or Jordan Spieth competing the Grand Slam (Spieth can beat McIlroy to the punch should he win in Bellerive).
As much as McIlroy could take the positives from Carnoustie, so could Woods who had one hand on the Claret Jug when he stood on the 11th tee at seven under par.
In his prime, he would have kicked sand in the faces of everyone and found a way to win, just as McIlroy, in the form of 2014, would also have done.
As the latter put it afterwards, both are having to ‘re-learn’ the knack of closing out majors. Reaction to McIlroy was not uniform. There are those who feel he let this Open slip from his fingers, chiefly with his indifferent wedge play, and a couple of missed putts.
Yet, this was his most consistent performance, and highest finish, in 14 majors since he won his second US PGA title. He drove the ball long, and mostly straight, and drained several clutch putts. His up and down for par from off the green at 16 and from the bunker at 17 on Sunday were hewn from raw courage.
It was a good week for him and he will look ahead to the next two tournaments knowing he’s on a crest of a wave. He doesn’t need reminding that he needs to get a wriggle on, on the Majors front.
At 29, his return is modest compared to Woods, who had 10 in the bag before he turned 30. McIlroy has two chances to add to his four before hitting that landmark age next May.
If things stopped for both men now, Woods would be assured of golfing immortality while McIlroy would be regarded as Ireland’s finest golfer, and one of Europe’s all-time greats, too.
To get to the next level, he has to win at least two more majors, according to Gary Player, who was at Carnoustie, where he won his second Open in 1968. For Player, the definition of golfing greatness has always been simple: winning.
‘I go right to the bottom line what people did, what’s on paper. Not how charismatic they were, not how far they hit the ball, now how good a putter they were. It’s winning, what they won. You put that in paper.’
To become a legendary figure in golf, Player believes a player’s career CV must be crowned by no fewer than six majors, to be precise. Not five like Phil Mickelson, four like Rory, or three like Spieth. Six.
‘To be a superstar in golf, you’ve got to set the bar high – six majors. Nick Faldo won six majors, he’s a superstar.’
A nine-time major champion, Player isn’t everyone’s box of raisins but his energy, quick-thinking and rat-a-tat opinions on golf, which he has every 30 seconds, are unique for someone in his 84th year.
Much of his pontification smacks of self-interest but he can back it up through 65 years as a pro, and 165 worldwide victories from 1955 to 1998. Not surprisingly, longevity at the top ranks high for him ‘when judging a great player.’ ‘[Jack] Nicklaus had a long career, [Arnold] Palmer had a very short career. Sam Snead had an extremely long career. Ben Hogan couldn’t have one, because he had this terrible accident.’ Player is an ardent Woods fan because ‘he enhances the games and brings more people into the game, is responsible for these guys playing for a million (dollars) first prize every week’.
Four years ago, McIlroy was the poster boy identified by the bluechip companies, headed by Nike, as the next Tiger. He had four majors by the time he was 25 and nothing, it seemed, could stop him. Yet, it didn’t happen. Here, some perspective is needed. In 2015, a serious ankle injury forced him out of the Open at St Andrews, and he wasn’t fully fit for the US PGA either, while he was nursed through 2017 with rib problems.
Now fully fit, putting better, and feeding from the positive Carnoustie vibes, he couldn’t have asked for a course more suited to his strengths than the Bellerive lay-out in St Louis.
The par 71 has three par fives measuring 575, 618 and 608 yards respectively and three par fours in excess of 480 yards. When he won his first PGA Championship in 2012, it was promoted with the slogan, ‘Glory’s Last Shot’.
Thereafter, the PGA shredded that tag to protect the FedEx Cup and replace it with less colourful labels like ‘This Is Major’ and ‘The Season’s Final Major’.
For the 100th PGA Championship, the PGA could do worse than relaunch the event as ‘Rory’s Last Shot’.
Because that’s what it is.