Fight fan McIlroy is golf’s king of the ring
EVERYTHING you need to know about Rory McIlroy and t he generationdefining journey he is on was on show at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship i n San Francisco last week.
It was all there as his elaborate plans to attend the fight of the century dissolved before his eyes. A month earlier, he told me: ‘I’ve waited years for it to happen,’ as he outlined his intention to be in Las Vegas to watch Floyd Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao.
In the end, the long wait did not add up to a hill of beans when placed alongside the chance to claim another highly-prized trophy in his own sport.
Listen to the trolls who say the Northern Irishman is only interested in the fame and the money and he would not have even been playing in California. Anything less than a hell-bent determination to become the best player he can possibly be, and McIlroy would not have summoned the resolve to come back from two down with two to play to dispatch Billy Horschel at the second extra hole on Friday evening.
The six-figure sum paid for ringside seats and the private jet he had lined up both became worthless props alongside the prize of adding a second WGC title to the two majors and Europe’s flagship title he also has in his possession. It means that of the nine most cherished trophies available to a European, McIlroy currently owns five.
For every Lionel Messi or Roger Federer that comes along, it always helps when a Cristiano Ronaldo or Rafael Nadal emerges to push them to the limit. If Jordan Spieth’s brilliant victory at the Masters was not the best thing that could have happened to McIlroy, it was second only to the aftermath.
‘The Spieth Era Begins Now,’ was the cover headline in the leading magazine, Sports Illustrated. Fair enough. Most knowledgeable Americans saw it at the time as ludicrous hype but there was nothing coincidental in the fact McIlroy should use his very next tournament to make a statement.
TRUST him to do it with a touch of stardust as well. He won his first title in America after surviving the cut with nothing to spare and reached the summit of the game at the age of just 21 by winning another. Now he wrapped up this success by surely becoming the first man to win three matches in the same day.
First up was Paul Casey. The pair could not be separated after 21 holes of their quarter-final when darkness intervened on Saturday evening but it lasted only one hole more upon the resumption at 6.45am on Sunday.
Next came the redoubtable Jim Furyk, who played beautifully to go one up with two to play. Rory’s response? He matched Furyk’s birdie at the 16th before going birdie, eagle to win on the 18th.
The huge-hitting American Gary Woodland had intimidated a series of opponents on his way to the final. When he got there, he suddenly found he could not hit a fairway. Tiredness, claimed the commentators, at the end of a gruelling week. It was more likely to have been the effect of the man standing next to him.
As for the big fight, McIlroy ended up watching it in the media centre, while his manager Sean O’Flaherty o r dered take-away pizza for all. Imagine any other world No 1 in a major sport doing that? ‘He might be the nicest guy out here,’ said Woodland, after the final.
F Scott Fitzgerald once described the age of 26 as the acme of a man’s life. McIlroy reached that age yesterday. With this success he has the same number of titles (17) that Tiger Woods had at that age. Over the next four weeks he will play in Florida, North Carolina and Surrey before ending with the Irish Open at Royal County Down not far from where he was born.
McIlroy is the tournament host and such is his popularity the great names are coming from far and wide to attend a tournament that normally does not get anywhere near their schedule. So the legend grows.
Last August, I wrote: ‘Give him 10 years and he will be hailed as the greatest sportsman these isles have ever seen.’
Knowing Rory, he will get there ahead of time.