McIlroy’s reinvented himself
Iwas going to write about Stuart Kettell, who this month pushed a brussels sprout up the highest mountain in Wales with his nose, but golfer Rory McIlroy is just too compelling.
Kettell, an Englishman, had to use 22 sprouts over four days before he reached the summit of Snowdon – 1085m (3560ft) high.
By the time he completed his self-imposed task, he had no skin left on his knees. Fortunately he wore a nose-guard.
The 49-year-old raised about $7200 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
He has previously spent a week in a box, and walked along every street in Coventry on stilts, so he has been mad for quite some time.
But even Kettell and his brussels sprouts faded in comparison with McIlroy.
As a sports columnist, I have some history with McIlroy.
In April 2011, aged just 21, he led the US Masters by four strokes entering the final round. I wrote a column that day posing the question: is Rory McIlroy the new Tiger Woods?
He answered that emphatically the following day, shooting 80 to finish 10 strokes behind the winner, South African Charl Schwartzel, after a stunning collapse.
McIlroy did little for my credentials as a golf pundit.
However, I’ve forgiven him after watching him win his third and fourth career majors, the British Open and US PGA, within a few weeks.
It’s not rare for a golfer to win two majors in a year. Over the past three decades, Padraig Harrington did it in 2008, Woods four times (in 2003 he won three), Mark O’Meara in 1998, Nick Price in 1994, Nick Faldo in 1990, Tom Watson in 1977, Jack Nicklaus in 1975 and Gary Player in 1974.
But McIlroy looms as a potential legend of golf, not merely a really fine player. His driving is fantastic and his irons and putting are exemplary for one so young.
He comes from Holywood (the Northern Ireland version), but there’s nothing too flashy about him. He seems very grounded.
He lost marks in the public estimation when he ditched tennis star fiancee Caroline Wozniacki in May, but the move appears to have dramatically helped his golf. He’s bounced back from looming obscurity to No 1 in the world since.
I was in Ireland when the US PGA was being played.
On the day McIlroy won, the Belfast Telegraph (Holywood is on the northern outskirts of Belfast) ran 11 stories on his triumph.
The following day, Dublin’s Irish Independent featured McIlroy on P1, 2, 3, an editorial and six sports stories. And in Dublin he’s not even their boy!
The Irish ability to produce champion golfers is incredible, considering the population of the entire island roughly equates to New Zealand’s.
Over the past decade majors winners from Northern Ireland (population 1.8 million) have been Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and McIlroy. And 150km to the south, Dublin’s Harrington has won another three.
McIlroy is the shining beacon, though. Is he the new Tiger? I wouldn’t write off Woods. He is a stubborn and singularly determined man, who once won a major with a broken leg. With him anything is possible.
But anyway, McIlroy doesn’t need to share a sentence with anyone. He is simply the new McIlroy.