He would not fail this time. No way. He would not choke; he would not blow it.
Rory McIlroy scratched his forehead underneath his favourite golfing cap, surveyed the green at Congressional, contemplated the day in front of him, smiled at the expectant crowd of fans and press corps from around the world, then teed up for the round that would change his life. Forever.
It was his day of destiny: the final round of the US Open in Bethesda, Maryland. A day and a round that would propel him to world superstardom and prove that he had the makings of the greatest golfer of all time. A day and a round that would leave even the legendary Tiger Woods purring about his talents and potential – and conceding well, yes, the boy from Ulster was a better player than he had been at that age.
A day and a round that would see the Northern Irish wonder-boy golfer Rory McIlroy finally come of age – at the tender age of just 22.
But no, it hadn’t all come together out of pure chance, out of random luck. After his meltdown in The Masters at Augusta two months earlier, Rory had taken vital, valuable time out to reassess his game. He had attempted to work out exactly why he had blown up when winning seemed the easier option. Many analysts would voice their fears that the then 21-year-old would never recover from the setback – that he would be forever traumatised by the experience and would find it hard to overcome what they termed ‘the inevitable emotional and mental’ hurdles. That he would never now go on to win a Major.
Of course, they didn’t know the boy; they had confused him with other golfers who had ‘bottled it’ and afterwards never gone on to triumph in one of the sport’s four marquee events. Some mentioned Colin Montgomerie as an example, claiming Rory would go the way of the brilliantly talented, if emotionally brittle Scotsman. To his credit, Monty himself swiftly dismissed the comparison. The Scot, who by then had won 31 tournaments on the European Tour since turning professional in 1987, said he believed Rory would actually learn from the nightmare in Georgia to emerge a stronger, better golfer.
Monty, who never finished higher than second in a Major, observed: ‘He’s a very young lad and I think he can only learn from this experience. The way he hits the golf ball is second to none. He was playing the best tee to green. Unfortunately the putter let him down from the first hole onwards and it is amazing how small the holes get at Augusta on a Sunday.
‘He was probably just trying too hard, trying to achieve what is almost unachievable at that age. He will be back. He has to look at it as a very positive step. With nine holes to go, he was still one ahead at The Masters and that is a very positive thought to take.’
Indeed it was – and the canny Scot also made the very good point that on the day Rory had come up against an opponent at his absolute peak in Charl Schwartzel, as testified by his four birdies on those final four holes at Augusta. Monty astutely observed that putting was of the essence in The Masters and said of the South African: ‘I’ve played with him many times as a European Tour player and was always very impressed with him. He was the best putter of the week and we know at The Masters it is mainly all to do with that.
‘His was a name that many Americans had not known and many outside of South Africa and Europe had not heard of. They have now, and that will give him confidence to go forward.’
Despite this, the doom merchants were out in force. In the press, the Mail’s brilliant golf writer Derek Lawrenson expressed the fear that many shared when, after Rory’s collapse at Augusta, he wrote: ‘In the entire history of major championship golf we’ve rarely witnessed anything like this. We’ve seen any number of players choke, we’ve witnessed plenty more simply not having the skills to cope with the suffocating demands of a Sunday afternoon, but has a man in a position to win ever suffered three holes to match those that befell poor Rory McIlroy in the final round of The Masters on Sunday? Amen Corner they call it, and everyone had better say a prayer for the young Northern Irishman after this disintegration.’
In the Daily Telegraph, Oliver Brown continued the theme of Rory needing divine intervention for future success. He opined: ‘When Rory McIlroy pitched his ball into Rae’s Creek at the 13th he looked fleetingly on the point of tears. No words of consolation, no platitudes that he would be stronger for the sapping and brutal pressure of Masters Sunday could have filtered through to the 21-year-old last night. McIlroy’s hideous unravelling, shedding seven strokes in 12 holes when he must have been mentally measuring himself up for the Green Jacket, was not merely Greg Norman-esque. It was the most spectacular – and surely the most affecting – Augusta implosion anyone could remember. As McIlroy crashed and burned at the turn, the patrons thronged around “Amen Corner” were tempted to whisper a prayer for him.’
But Richard Williams of the Guardian saw the light through the darkness at Augusta – suggesting Rory might benefit from the collapse to return stronger because he had youth on his side: ‘McIlroy did not fade out of the contest. He crashed out of it, brakes gone and tyres screeching, in a welter of debris. Only his youth will help insulate him from the direst consequences of such a terrible, terrifying failure; an older man might never recover. And at least it was relatively quick. Greg Norman’s tortured collapse against Nick Faldo in 1996 lasted most of the day.’
CNN’s Ben Wyatt also had positive input for Rory, suggesting he might learn from the efforts of Phil Mickelson, if he needed some inspiration: ‘There is inspiration close at hand if Rory needs a pick-me-up. Phil Mickelson had been dubbed “the greatest player never to win a Major”, having finished second or third between 1999 and 2003. He seemed destined to be an eternal bridesmaid. But “Lefty” clung to a tiny, private thought; a ray of light within him that said he could one day win. And in 2004 he did, at the Augusta Masters; a victory which proved the first of three Masters’ triumphs over the next six years. McIlroy can bounce back if he follows the lead set by Mr Mickelson.’
Two months later, at Congressional, Rory would prove the likes of Wyatt, Williams and Montgomerie correct – and quieten the doubters – in securing that wonderful first Major at the US Open. And he would admit that, yes, he had learned from The Masters and the lesson, though painful, was part of the reason why he had triumphed in Bethesda. After his dramatic win, he said: ‘Every cloud has a silver lining. What happened at Augusta was a great thing for me in terms of support. It’s just been incredible the way people cheered for me the whole week – it feels like a home match. To have that when you come over here and feel like you’re one of their own is going to be important in the next few years.
‘I felt like I got over The Masters pretty quickly – I kept telling you guys that, and I don’t know if you believed me or not. Nice to prove some people wrong! To be able to finish it off the way I did just tells me that I learned from it and I’ve moved on. I can always call myself a major champion but now I’ve got this, I can concentrate on getting some more.’
So, how exactly did he turn it around – from the anguish of Augusta to the unbridled delight of Bethesda – in just two short months to become the youngest European to win a Major in 139 years?
Well, there were two key elements to his remarkable transformation. The first is that the boy is a natural winner. He does not allow himself to become low or depressed if things go wrong; he simply analyses the situation, puts it right and then propels himself forward with a magnificent self-belief that oozes from every pore of his body. This is no moper or sulker, he moves on; the past is history and all that matters is the present and the future, win or lose.
Rory is much of the opinion that you are only as good (or bad) as your last game of golf, so what’s the point in getting hung up on days of self-doubt and self-analysis? Sure, a responsible attempt to see why things didn’t work out and to look at how to put them right is part and parcel of any top sportsman’s make-up but if you allow losses to demoralise and haunt you then you risk their spectre impinging on your next outing on the green – as Colin Montgomerie himself might well point out to be the case.
For Rory, the aim was to get it right next time. As he himself put it, it would be ‘nice to prove some people wrong’ and to make his critics eat their words. Even in the immediate aftermath of that crushing setback in Augusta, he admitted he would not, nay could not, afford to dwell too much on his collapse when he spoke to the press corps on the final day: ‘It will be pretty tough for me for the next few days, but I will get over it – I will be fine. There are a lot worse things that can happen in your life. Shooting a bad score in the last round of a golf tournament is nothing in comparison to what other people go through.
‘It is a very disappointing day, obviously, but hopefully I’ll learn from it and come back a little stronger. It was my first experience of being in the lead going into the last day of a Major, and I felt as if I did OK on the front nine. I was still one shot ahead going into the 10th and then things went all pear-shaped after that, but I’ll have more chances, I know that.’
He was also boosted by the knowledge that his growing army of fans worldwide were willing him on to win that first Major after Augusta. After Augusta, the golfing Internet boards were awash with ‘hard luck, Rory’ messages and ‘Come on, you can do it!’ before and during the US Open.
As far away as Australia, his supporters were sympathising while The Masters setback sunk in. Down Under, one fan, Andrew Herbert, said: ‘I woke up this morning hoping to see him putting on the Green Jacket. Looking, not 1st, 2nd, 3rd. I honestly thought, where is he? Heart sank when I heard about the 80. Pint of Guinness, a ruffling of the hair… Get out there again, mate! A lot of people want you to win, for all the right reasons! Go, Rory!’
And another online well-wisher, PJB, had these words of wisdom for the Northern Irishman: ‘While we may be defined by our successes, we are forged in our failures. The Masters is certainly a white-hot crucible and young Mr McIlroy is a ductile piece of metal. He can become the tempered steel that makes the finest blade, he has only to establish his goal and set his mind to it. We saw the elements of a future Masters champion, it is up to him to accomplish according to his aspirations. I wish him well in his experiences.’
And after Bethesda the fans were left in no doubt that a new star had been born. The idea that Rory was actually a golfing saviour was now taking shape: that here, after the dismal spectacle of Tiger Woods’ very public demise, was a young man who could take the game forward and indeed open it up to a whole new fan base and encourage people to take it up worldwide.
Golf writer Ray Sanchez suggested as much when he said, ‘Do we finally have a new golf superstar in Rory McIlroy? Heaven knows, the sport needs one. Heck, every sport needs one – someone we can root for, look up to, try to follow his or her example. Ever since Tiger Woods went into a tailspin, we’ve had a long list of faceless champions on the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy, who’s from Northern Ireland, is only 22 years old and it’s too early to tell if he’s our latest golfer in shining armour. He won the 2011 US Open with a record 16-under-par score last weekend. But one Major does not a superstar make.
‘Still, he’s young, he’s fresh, he can hit the ball a mile – and oh, how he can putt. It was sheer pleasure watching him on television make great shot after great shot. And he’s nice looking, friendly, accessible and polite. We can hope.’
One British fan, Andrew Hirst, suggested Rory’s success would indeed bring an inevitable and welcome bonus to the membership of golf clubs in the UK: ‘From the very first tee he was free-swinging and unlike the tight fairways and water hazards of Augusta, there was nothing in the way of a successful week. But no one could predict the unshakable form he was in. Dropping three shots in four days on one of America’s toughest courses proved his class at this level. The new era has begun and it’s exciting stuff. After the carnage of Tiger Woods’ career left the game in the doldrums we can now move on with a new prince. In recent years, golf memberships have been dwindling and the game lost its credibility for upstanding behaviour and sportsmanship. When the dust settles from this astounding victory it will be the local pro beaming a boyish grin, ready to take the money of a fresh breed of golfer, seeking to emulate their new hero.’
Another also pointed out that the win would boost enthusiasm for golf as a sport, as well as interest in The Open at Kent in July: ‘I can’t wait for The Open Championship. There’s no underestimating the significance of this victory for Rory and the way in which he totally dominated the field. I just hope that The Open is a true reflection of the type of golf that we see in Open Championships. We need a bit of wind to blow across the links and then the real meaning of shot shaping and different types of shots will come to the fore. It would be really symbolic if Rory was to win The Open in testing conditions because no doubt that would reflect the conditions he would have been brought up on in his part of the world. I love watching the best players in the world having to “think” their way around an Open Championship, playing shots that American courses just don’t cater for. Punched long irons, little bump and runs, hitting under the wind – it’s what golf is all about.’
But for now, that would have to wait. First, Rory wanted to savour the win at Bethesda and was happy to watch reruns of his triumph and talk to the press about how this had been achieved. He admitted the main thing he had put right after Augusta was his putting. It hadn’t required any genius to work that one out – Rory simply shuddered as he recalled his putting nightmare that cost him so dearly in the final round. In particular, he conceded that four-putt double bogey on the 12th would give him a few nightmares for some time to come!
Typical of his straight thinking and positive attitude, he hadn’t gone into days of intense analysis and angst over it, though. No, instead he and his father Gerry simply decided to seek out the opinion of a man they trusted implicitly. They asked Dave Stockton, considered one of the best putters of all-time, to help out. The American considered it a privilege and spent a couple of sessions with Rory at the PGA Tour event in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the start of May.
It took Stockton, a former double Major winner and victorious US Ryder Cup captain, next to no time to pinpoint the flaws that were holding back the golfing prodigy. The Californian would later reveal: ‘Basically I met with Rory, watched him putting and it took about 10 minutes to fix. I told him, “You’re a great ball player and your putting is great.” We just needed to work on the mental side of things; it was just a case of getting him into a rhythm. Rory plays through instinct and feel, and that’s what’s great about him.
‘He just needed to line up the ball, look at the hole and the positioning of his feet, and follow through on the putt and keep the back of his left hand going towards the target. His mechanics were flawless but he had to stop concentrating on technique and play what was in front of him.’
By the end of May, the pair met again at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, where Stockton witnessed first hand the improvement in Rory’s putting skills. ‘When I went to see him at Wentworth, he had already improved and we just brushed up on his putting and chipping,’ he said. ‘He’s a great kid. He’s easy to teach, he really is. When I met him he was just 21 years old and he was more like a 35-year-old. If you show him something and he buys into it, he can just do it straightaway.’
There was another element to Stockton’s mentoring, too – he knew Congressional well. Indeed, 35 years earlier he had won the 1976 PGA Tournament there. It meant he could pass on tips on how to cope at the course before the event began.
The legendary Jack Nicklaus, too, had a few words of advice for the youngster, telling him to ‘put pressure on himself to win.’
Rory would reveal that he had also been inspired by a pre-Congressional trip to Haiti: the young man had gone there in his official capacity as UNICEF’s Ireland Ambassador. This journey to the ravaged Caribbean island was his first overseas visit and he was to admit that it had opened his eyes and made him realise that sport was not the be-all and end-all of life. Haiti was still suffering the effects of the earthquake that hit close to the capital, Port-au-Prince, in January 2010.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 people had been killed but as Rory arrived, General Ken Keen – the head military officer in charge of relief efforts in Haiti – commented the total might have been closer to 200,000. And the Red Cross calculated that 3 million – roughly one-third of the country’s population – had been directly affected by the quake, with many left homeless.
Rory quickly took in the scale of the devastation, both in human terms with the suffering of those he met and the loss of Haiti’s major landmarks – most had been destroyed or significantly damaged. He was told they included the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly and the Port-au-Prince Cathedral (a 1914 structure that took 30 years to build). Other important buildings affected include the country’s main jail and a major hospital.
During his two-day trip he was struck by the spirit and determination of the people to rebuild and start again; he was shown newly built schools and camps for those who had lost their homes in the earthquake. He then handed out bars of soap to children at a UNICEF kindergarten and showed them how to wash their hands properly so that they would not become sufferers of cholera, which had already claimed thousands of young lives.
He also visited a UNICEF-funded area, where children could play sports and games. Later, he said: ‘It was important to me that my first visit as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador be a place like Haiti, where I can see what is being accomplished and what challenges remain.’ On the social networking site Twitter, he would reveal how he had been affected by the visit. He first tweeted: ‘Pretty emotional day today. Great to see all the work UNICEF do to help and educate kids in this grief-stricken country.’ Later, he added: ‘My trip to Haiti is coming to an end. Was incredible to see the work UNICEF do here and more importantly, the great spirit the Haitian people have. With the new president and the positivity of the people, a little help could go a long way in this country!’
‘Rory was truly moved by what he witnessed in Haiti,’ said a source close to the McIlroy camp. ‘He met one particular young girl who had lost her father in the quake and whose mother had been seriously injured. He even put up a pic of her on his Twitter site – he found her inspiring because she was so full of life, even though she had lost so much. It helped him at Congressional. He thought of that little girl and the other kids, and their spirit and determination lifted him during the tournament.’
On leaving Haiti, Rory had travelled straight to America to prepare for the US Open, which was scheduled to begin the following week. All the efforts with putting mentor Dave Stockton and the inspiration garnered from meeting the kids on his trip to Haiti now paid off over the weekend of 16–19 June at Bethesda as he stormed home, setting that new US Open record score of 16-under-par.
He got off to a flier in the first round to immediately seize the tournament by the scruff of its neck when he hit a brilliant first-round six-under-par 65 to take an early three-shot lead. But even after producing six birdies, the perfectionist in Rory was not totally happy with his showing. He remarked: ‘To be honest, it could have been better but in the end, I’ll take a 65. As for a fast start again, my preparation is a big thing. I always go a week early to the course and play it before many of the others.’
He was referring, of course, to the fact that, at the tender age of 22, he had now taken the lead in all four Majors.
Twenty-four hours later he had completed the first two rounds in a blistering 131 strokes, adding a second-day 66 to his overnight 65. That in itself put him in the record books – he had chalked up the lowest 36-hole total since the US Open’s inception in 1895. He also became the first man to go as low as 13-under-par, although he finished the round on 11-under after suffering a double bogey at the last hole.
Clearly, he was aiming to hit the competition at a rasping pace and to put behind him the misery of The Masters. He said: ‘The Masters is now history. I’m focusing on this event and trying to win my first Major title; I got over The Masters within a week or so. It all feels quite simple – I’m hitting fairways, hitting greens and holing my fair share of putts – but I’m not letting myself get carried away. We’re only halfway through the tournament.’ But he was confident there would be no repeat of the blow-up and used his favourite football team, Man United, as an example of how he now fully expected to go on and win. He added: ‘Someone told me I’m the same price to win here as Manchester United are to beat West Brom in their first game next season. I’d say United should win – and I’ve a great chance, too.’
As the second day concluded, former US PGA champ Y.E. Yang appeared the man most likely to close the gap but even he was six shots behind, at five-under-par.
By Saturday, Rory was again ripping up the record books. His third-round 68 meant he had achieved the lowest 54-round total ever in the US Open: 199. That was one less than Jim Furyk at Olympia Fields in 2003. Plus his 14-under-par at Congressional was two less than the previous par record in the US Open achieved by Gil Morgan at Pebble Beach in 1992 and Tiger Woods at the same venue in 2000.
Rory’s third-round 68 meant he would be going into the final round on the Sunday at 14-under-par with an 8-stroke lead. Yang was still leading the rest of the field at 6-under, while Robert Garrigus, Lee Westwood and Jason Day were tied at 5-under.
Rory’s lead has been bettered only three times in all Majors. Tiger Woods and Henry Cotton were 10 in front (at the 2000 US Open and 1934 Open respectively) and Woods 9 ahead at the 1997 Masters. Since the very first Open Championship in 1860, no one has ever lost such an advantage after 54 holes of a Major. The biggest collapse was Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters: he was 6 clear and lost to Nick Faldo by 5.
Rory said: ‘The big goal was to try to get to 15-under. I didn’t quite achieve it, but I don’t mind. I knew I was going to feel a little bit of pressure and nerves, and it definitely wasn’t easy.’
But Westwood still had hope – especially after he was reminded that at the 1966 US Open, Billy Casper was 7 adrift of Arnold Palmer with 9 to play and won in a playoff. After the third round, Westwood observed: ‘My mission was to get myself somewhere into the tournament. I said, “Maybe if I can get to 10-under at the weekend” but you don’t know how Rory is going to do, how he’s going to deal with the big lead. He had a big lead in a major and didn’t deal with it well before. There’s pressure on him with regards to that, so we’ll see.
‘They don’t give trophies away on Fridays and Saturdays. All I can do is control my game and try and shoot as low a score as possible for me. I drove the ball really well – I think I missed one fairway and one green. I put myself in position to be able to attack the flags. If you drive the ball well around this golf course, it’s scoreable.’
Lee was clearly putting on the pressure with the mind games but would he be proved right – that the pressure could get to Rory and he might not be able to deal with it, that he would blow it again, like The Masters?
No chance. He knew it, and so did the rest of the field. Probably even Westwood, if truth be told. Going into his day of destiny, Rory was smiling and clearly contented with his golf. He said: ‘I’m feeling good, feeling very good, you know. It’s funny to me, it feels quite simple – I really don’t know what to say. I put myself in a great position but I know more than probably anyone else what can happen so I’ve got to stay really focused and try and finish this thing off.’
Relative journeyman (in comparison to Rory, at least) Brandt Snedeker, ranked 46th in the world, summed up the feeling around Congressional that Sunday morning when he said: ‘Rory’s probably got more talent in his pinkie than I have in my whole body! He is unbelievably talented. I love watching him play because it’s a very classical, beautiful golf swing. He’s only going to get harder to beat. It’s fun to kind of watch him grow up.
‘Anybody who makes people want to tune in and watch is a great ambassador and Rory McIlroy makes people want to do that. He’s got a great head on his shoulders, which is very hard to do with the amount of success he’s had at such a young age. You couldn’t ask for a better kid to be out there representing the game.’
It was a splendid tribute from a man with a big heart – and it would prove more than appropriate as Rory roared home that wonderful Sunday in Bethesda of June 2011.
The Observer’s Lawrence Donegan set the scene for the final act with some illuminating prose: ‘Cautiously aggressive, tentatively tenacious, carefully courageous. Whatever the approach, it worked for Rory McIlroy, who will arrive at Congressional Country Club on Sunday with the promised land of a US Open victory in sight. When Saturday dawned, the unfettered brilliance of the Boy Wonder’s opening two rounds had been reined in ever so slightly but only the most blinkered golfing aesthetes could be upset about that. Pragmatists know better.
‘What ultimately counts in this utilitarian business of major championship golf are the numbers. It is not how but how many? And in answer to that pointed question, McIlroy returned a 3-under-par 68 for a 54-hole total of 199, 14-under-par. That was good enough for an eight-shot lead over his nearest challenger, Y.E. Yang of Korea, and sensational enough for the historians to sharpen their pencils once again for a little re-writing. Lowest three-round score in the history of the US Open; not bad for a boy from Holywood, Northern Ireland.’
And the fans were just as convinced their man would not let them down now. One commented: ‘Stunning – highly enjoyable to watch, from start to finish! Classy saves, very straight irons, more smooth putting, and a complete serenity. The engraver can put his name on the pot now, save himself the last-minute rush tomorrow. I’ve never enjoyed watching somebody play three days of golf as much as this. He’s 14-under and still had so many near misses as well. McIlroy’s playing a brute of a course like it is a regular club course rather than the toughest US Open course of all.’
Another applauded Rory for his personable touch, saying, ‘What I like about McIlroy is that win or lose, you can imagine him going home tomorrow or whenever and playing a few holes with his mates on Wednesday afternoon. Could you imagine Woods doing that? And he’s still a lad! How far is he going to hit the ball when he fills out a bit? Although what I would love to do even more than hit a drive 200 yards is to be able to play wedge shots like he does. An artist.’
An artist, indeed, but an artist who now had a tougher inner resolve: yes, Rory would finish off the job with all the discipline and command of a golfing assassin, giving his rivals no chance of survival.
McIlroy captured his first Major in style, almost making the final round a lap of honour such was his dominance as he chalked up an eight-stroke triumph. He fired a 2-under-par 69 to finish 72 holes on 16-under-par 268 to claim the 111th US Open. Masters runner-up Jason Day of Australia was second on 276, with Yang Yong-Eun, Lee Westwood and Americans Robert Garrigus and Kevin Chappell sharing third on 278.
Inevitably, there were a few knockers out there – those who claimed Rory had it easy because the rainy weather had left the ground ‘playing too soft’. Golf writer Gary Smits quickly put paid to that argument, saying, ‘There was a lot of rain in the days before the tournament and during the nights during The Open. Because there had been little rain in the months before, the rough wasn’t as thick and juicy as most US Open courses. And while Congressional is a very good course with a lot of history, there aren’t a lot of holes that lend themselves to big numbers if a player makes a mistake or two – such as the 10th hole at Augusta National, where McIlroy unravelled and lost his Sunday lead in The Masters.
‘Because McIlroy broke every important US Open scoring record except the 18-hole record and US Opens are supposed to be won with a score somewhere around par, McIlroy’s achievement is actually being criticised in some circles but I fail to see how the course not playing as difficult as some Open tracks in the past diminishes McIlroy’s week. There won’t be an asterisk by his name on the trophy.
‘His US Open title means the same as Tiger Woods in 2000 at Pebble Beach, Jack Nicklaus in 1962 at Oakmont, or Ben Hogan in 1951 at Oakland Hills. And I’m pretty sure the $1.35 million check cleared the bank. Maybe he was that good, that week.
‘There’s an old adage that goes, “You play the ball as it lies and the course as you found it.” McIlroy found a course ripe for the taking, and took it. Majors shouldn’t have style points.’
Swift praise for Rory’s achievement came from the watching Tiger Woods. ‘Heck of a performance,’ he noted. ‘Congrats and well done. Enjoy it. This was an impressive performance.’ Injured and licking his wounds after the series of sex scandals that had rocked both his personal life and career, Woods no doubt harked back to 1997 when, as a 21-year-old, he had demolished the field at Augusta to clinch The Masters, the first of his 14 Major triumphs. No doubt he felt the crown slipping, too as Rory made his first claim on it.
Jack Nicklaus also chipped in with a few words of congratulation. ‘I think this kid is going to have a great career, no question about that,’ the 18-times Major winner said. ‘He plays very well. He had a couple disappointments. I didn’t think that [Rory’s Masters collapse] was going to happen again and it hasn’t.’
After his victory, Rory ran to his father Gerry and the two hugged – the culmination of two decades’ work finally complete. He then paid tribute to Gerry and all the efforts he had put in – the tripling-up on jobs to help him fund his career, the long journeys to different courses and the constant encouragement – by dedicating the victory to him on Father’s Day. Rory said: ‘Happy Father’s Day, Dad – this one’s for you,’ after proudly showing off his winning trophy on the course in Maryland.
He then added: ‘But I have to mention my mum as well, who’s back home watching. I can’t thank them enough. As Graeme [McDowell] said last year there will be a few pints of the black stuff going down tonight. I know my friends will be out partying and I can’t wait to get back and join them. But the whole week has been incredible. I knew what I needed to do today to win – I put a few new things into practice and it paid off.’
Gerry would later reveal he was ‘over the moon’ for his son and say that every sacrifice he and wife Rosie had made was now more than worthwhile. He commented: ‘We worked very hard to get him where he is. If we had not put the effort in at the time, I could be sitting here wondering what would have happened and regretting not doing it. It was expensive – hotels, airfares and everything – but we worked to get where we are. We are very lucky with Rory.
‘Of course there are times everyone gets fed up working, but as the years went by Rory got better and better, so it was more of an incentive. I didn’t mind, and Rosie didn’t mind – Rory is our only child so you can just do the best you can for them. We didn’t know what was going to happen; all we did was try our best for him. He drove it all, we just helped him – you can’t push kids into anything. But once he decided he wanted to do it, we were 100 per cent behind him.’
Gerry also revealed that his now world-famous son was not motivated by money. He added: ‘Rory has no interest in money – Rory is just Rory. People find it hard to understand but he doesn’t care about cash as long as he has enough to do him. Even growing up he never really cared about money, it has never meant anything to him. He has a nice house nearby and he’s put a few quid into it, but apart from that he doesn’t spend much.’
That may have been the case but one lucky punter was certainly interested in money – to the tune of almost £20,000 as a result of Rory’s triumph. Six years previously the Londoner had bet £300 with William Hill on McIlroy to land a Major before 2020 – at odds of 66:1.
Rory himself was also laughing all the way to the bank – despite an apparent lack of concern about his burgeoning fortune. His win at Congressional earned him a cheque for a cool $1.44 million (£900,000), but in becoming the youngest player to win a Major since Tiger Woods lifted The Masters trophy in 1997, he also set himself up for major riches off the green with sponsorship deals. He already pocketed an estimated $10 million in endorsement deals with Dubai hotels group Jumeirah, Titleist (who supplied his golf balls and equipment) and sunglasses maker Oakley.
Experts predicted he could double that figure when the contracts came up for renewal – and then there were new deals that would inevitably be placed on the table for his inspection. Tiger Woods had earned $92 million in sponsorship in 2009 before his bubble burst and so the ‘sky’s the limit for Rory’ according to the experts. One PR exec, Adrian Rogers, said: ‘Rory can step into the gap that has been created by Tiger’s demise. He has everything the sport is looking for. He is clean, young, attractive and he connects with the public – which is something Tiger really rarely did, even at the peak of his powers. Tiger is the past; Rory is the future.’
Rory now freely admitted he would ‘love to dominate the sport’ as his boyhood hero Tiger Woods once had. He had always said that he wanted to emulate Tiger’s masterclass of 2000 when he won the US Open by a record 15 shots at Pebble Beach. Now Rory said: ‘I know how good Tiger was in 2000 to win by 15 in Pebble. I was trying to go out there and emulate him. I grew up watching him dominate at The Masters in ’97, watching him dominate at Pebble in 2000 and St Andrews, and I was just trying to go out there with the same intensity.
‘To get one out of the way early, you can always call yourself a Major champion. And hopefully, in the not-so distant future I’ll be able to call myself a multiple Major champion.’
Rory had sent records tumbling as he marched home in glory, becoming the youngest US Open champion since Bobby Jones in 1923 and the youngest Major winner since Woods in 1997.
Tiger had missed out on Congressional with knee and Achilles injuries and now the spin-doctors were busy predicting that Rory was set to replace him, on and off the course, as the new face of the sport with a rash of commercial deals. Rory observed: ‘When you win a Major quite early in your career, everyone is going to draw comparisons, it’s natural. I don’t know if Tiger was watching it on TV, maybe he saw a couple of shots here and there. But it would just be nice for him to be healthy again and get back out on the golf course because he brings something extra to tournaments.
‘I’ve watched Tiger over the last 15 years. When I was growing up, I always had putts to beat Tiger in The Masters or US Open so it would be great to be able to go down the stretch with him one day.’
Certainly that doyen of sports writers James Lawton, commenting in the Independent, was in no doubt that Rory was ready to assume Tiger’s mantle as the No. 1. In a persuasive piece, he said: ‘…in a little more than two months he [Rory] had done more than repair the potentially shattering psychological damage of his unravelling on the last day at Augusta when he lost a four-stroke lead in a nightmare of a round of 80 which took him into the shadows of the Butler Cabin, where his earlier brilliance was supposed to have been dressed in the Green Jacket of the US Masters – the fabled reward for the youngest and most demonstrably gifted champion since Tiger Woods claimed the honour 14 years earlier.’
And the Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel elegantly set the scene for the new order within world golf when he observed: ‘When it was all over, he still used the pontoon bridge to cross the water to the scorer’s hut and sign his card; but if Rory McIlroy had chosen to take a short cut, skipping across the shimmering surface, the smart black soles of his still-pristine white shoes barely wet from the encounter, nobody would have been surprised.
‘There are some days in the sporting arena that set a young man apart; for McIlroy there are four of them. By most projections, June 16 to June 19, 2011 will be remembered as the time during which golf changed; a movement as significant and irreversible as the passing of the hands of the clock from 11.59pm to midnight each December 31. We are on McIlroy time now. Everything is different from here; or at least it should be.’
One writer even suggested humanity in general could learn from Rory how to deal with personal anguish after his Masters’ collapse. Associated Press writer Paul Newberry commented: ‘To say J.R. Hildebrand and Rory McIlroy are two of the biggest losers is totally missing the point. Sure, they had unfathomable meltdowns on two of the world’s biggest sporting stages – McIlroy at Augusta National, Hildebrand at the Indianapolis 500. But they’ve come off looking like winners, teaching us all a valuable lesson in how to cope with the realities of a sporting life. Heck, life in general. Someone has to win. Everyone else gets to lose – sometimes in the most excruciating way imaginable. That doesn’t mean you have to look at yourself as a loser. Funny how it took a couple of kids to show us that.’
Rory’s fellow golf pros were also convinced here was a young man who could shape the future of the sport and rack up records galore. Prior to the US Open, Ernie Els had said that Rory was ‘good enough to change golf history’ and there was no shortage of peers willing to step forward and add to this accolade after his mighty win at Bethesda.
Three-times Major winner Padraig Harrington predicted Rory might even top the 18 Majors won by his mentor Jack Nicklaus. Harrington had known for years that Rory would be some player – and even when he won the 2007 Open at Carnoustie gave a nod to the youngster he believed would one day be the best around. As he collected the Claret Jug, he laughed, looked over at Rory (who had won the silver medal as the highest finishing amateur) and quipped: ‘I’m just glad to have won this before Rory gets going!’
After the 2011 US Open, Harrington was equally effusive, saying: ‘Rory is 22 years old and if you are going to talk about someone challenging Jack’s record, there’s your man. Winning Majors at 22 with his talent, he’d have at least 20 more years so probably another 100 more Majors in him where he could be competitive. That would give him a great chance.
‘Rory has proved in playing the Majors so far that he is comfortable making the scores and he’s managed to lead after 18 holes, 36 holes and 54 holes and 63 holes, so now all he has to do is get another nine holes.’
And fellow Ulsterman Graeme McDowell, his close friend who had triumphed at the US Open a year earlier, also got in on the act. Graeme handed him the trophy and observed: ‘It’s just phenomenal – you run out of superlatives to describe what he has done this week. He’s decimated a field. I’ve been waiting for this to happen. He’s that good, there’s no doubt about it. I first heard about him when he shot 61 at my home course in Portrush. You hear rumours about people and good players, but this kid is something special.
‘His swing is phenomenal – he’s got the full package as far as his golf game is concerned, if his putter behaves itself. Tiger’s something very special. He had it all – the mental capacity, the short game, the putter. If Rory adds a couple of weapons to his arsenal, he can be as good.’
Finally, the people who mattered most to Rory on the circuit – the fans – chipped in with a variety of tributes to their hero. Probably the most eloquent of all was by someone who called himself ‘A Happy Rocket’ and who, like many of the pros, made the point that Rory’s emergence signalled a changing of the guard at the very top of the sport. The fan said: ‘Firstly, the most unbelievable display of golf, power, control, imagination, everything I’ve ever seen – bar nothing Woods has done, and that’s saying something. Second, it’s a matter of time before McIlroy gets to No. 1, probably after he wins at St George’s next month.
‘Third, it’s so refreshing to see what’s happening in the sport after a decade of players happy to tag along in Woods’ slipstream, making a million for finishing 100th on tour (not their fault, it’s only human nature). Now a batch of kids who had Woods as their hero are bursting on the scene and gunning for HIM like he gunned for Jack.
‘Woods is history – he may well win another Major, but he’s history in more ways than one. Nobody cares about him any more, not Rory, Schwartzel, Oosthuizen, Kaymer, Donald, Manassero, Ishikawa or another host of 19–23-year-olds in white belts, pounding it for miles and putting like God.
‘Think of your own club – how much better is it when “the best player” is a nice guy, humble when he wins, gracious when he loses, than a brat who nobody likes but has talent to waste. Woods can leave the scene anytime he likes with his language, club throwing and spitting and leave the way [open] for a whole new crop who respect the game and more importantly respect each other while trying their hearts out. Sit back and enjoy the next five years – it’s been a long time coming.’
The blueprint for the future had been cast but first, let’s turn back the clock and travel back in time to learn about the childhood roots, the upbringing, the family values and the golfing journey formed from early steps as a toddler armed with a plastic club that was to mould young Rory McIlroy into the man who would become a champion and a potential golfing saviour.