RORY IS AT A CROSSROADS
10 years ago today he turned pro, now at the end of a dismal year...
There are landmarks in any working life that offer a moment to pause and reflect and ten years at the coalface is certainly one of those. For rory McIlroy, it was exactly ten years ago today that he signed the forms that made him a professional golfer.
What a decade it was, filled with highs that represented a new standard for British and Irish golf and an injection of colour that meant he was rarely out of the headlines. But also a fair share of lows underlining just how tough it is to stay at the top for any length of time.
We’re now in one of those fallow periods, at the end of perhaps the most disappointing of his ten seasons as a pro. his year on the PGA Tour ended yesterday with him failing to qualify for the final Fedex Cup event, which he won in such glorious fashion last season.
McIlroy has one more event to play at St Andrews next week before a three-month period of rest and reappraisal, with the aim of putting right what has gone wrong and come out firing next January.
It’s only right on this day, though, that he looks back rather than forward and with pride, too, for his achievements have been spectacular.
As he said recently: ‘If someone had said to me when I signed those forms in 2007 that I’d win four majors over the next decade, play in three winning ryder Cup teams, win the race to Dubai three times, the US money list twice and the Fedex Cup, I’d have said: “Yeah, I’ll take that!”’
Along the way McIlroy, with his easy manner and candid approach, has captured the public imagination to such an extent that sponsors have enriched him to the point where his accumulated wealth is now well into nine figures.
When his parents Gerry and rosie were taking on extra jobs to give rory his chance, little could they have known their sacrifice would produce such a tale, although the fact they hailed from holywood might have given us a clue.
McIlroy, of course, was far from unknown on September 18, 2007. Two months earlier, in one of his last acts as an amateur, he shot 68 in the first round of The Open at Carnoustie, the only player in the field not to register a bogey. At the Dunhill Links, just his second event as a pro, he finished third and made enough money to secure his tour card. he was off and running.
In the game’s history, perhaps only Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros achieved more during their first decade. Is it reasonable to expect a similar return over the next?
Given the fact he is still relatively young at 28 there’s no obvious reason why the next ten years shouldn’t see him become europe’s greatest ever golfer after passing Sir Nick Faldo’s total of six majors. Perhaps he can become the greatest non-American golfer of all by overhauling Gary Player’s total of nine. They are targets McIlroy, quite rightly, has in his sights.
YeT he will begin his second decade at something of a crossroads. Of the five golfers ranked ahead of him, no fewer than four are younger, so the competition will be fierce.
Over the first decade the evidence was overwhelming that when McIlroy played his best no one else stood a chance, but will that remain the case given the desire and abilities of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon rahm and hideki Matsuyama?
McIlroy has certainly got some serious issues to address, beginning with his health. We’re told the persistent rib injury that has prevented him from practising properly for much of this season will be put right with two months of rest and we can only hope this proves the case.
While he’s doing that in October and November McIlroy will begin the search for a new caddie, and you only have to look at the contribution Michael Greller makes to Spieth’s success to illustrate the importance of the right choice.
On the course, McIlroy might have few peers when it comes to his work off the tee but it’s not much use when it’s accompanied by stats showing his wedge game and putting are way below a level to allow him to take advantage. The plan is to spend much of December working on a solution.
By the time we reach Abu Dhabi in mid-January, the hope is for a fully fit McIlroy to emerge with a gleam in his eye once more and excitement in his voice.
Fingers crossed, for if the last decade has shown us anything, it is there’s nothing in golf quite like the sight of McIlroy in full flow.