By the end of 2008 Rory had roared up the rankings – from 95th to 36th – and earned €400,000 more than the previous year (although of course he only turned pro in the September of 2007). He had also made it into the Top 100 world rankings. Before the start of the 2008 Euro Tour season, in December 2007, he made his growing presence felt on the circuit by snubbing Tiger Woods! The US legend had asked him to play in the Target World Challenge but Rory turned him down, saying, ‘I was thrilled that they would want to invite me considering I’m only just starting out on my career, but the event clashes with the European Open and that’s an event I would be stupid not to play.’
He began his 2008 season proper at the Hong Kong Open but this would prove a real disappointment as he failed to make the cut for the first time as a pro, missing it by four strokes. In the first round, he shot a 69 but slipped up in the second, carding a 74.
He was down, though not too depressed. A week later, he finished in a tie for 15th at the MasterCard Masters in Australia but it would be a topsy-turvy season with another 9 cuts missed and only by the second half of the year had he truly started to hit the form expected of him after his fine showings in Madrid and Scotland of the previous year.
The one highlight of the early part of the season was his display at the Irish Open in the middle of May, where he finished 7th with signs of his form returning. Rory contributed rounds of 70, 72, 70 and 70 – for a 282 total and a useful cheque of €75,000 – at the Adare Manor. Before play on the first day, he admitted how much he had been anticipating the event – his first Irish Open as a professional. ‘Yeah, I’m looking forward to it,’ he told reporters. ‘Obviously this is my first time in the Irish Open as a professional. I played in 2005 as an amateur at Carton House. I played this morning and the golf course is really nice and the greens are rolling really well. I think they have set it up quite fairly as well. I don’t think the rough is as penal as it was last year, so the scores should be a little better this year.’
He also admitted the weight of expectation had been on his shoulders but that he felt he had coped well so far: ‘I’m just trying to do my own thing and keep in control what I can keep control of, and that’s all I can do. I think going out last year and getting my Tour card so quickly probably put a lot of expectation on my shoulders but after I played Dubai and took a few weeks off and I came back and played Malaysia and Korea, missed a couple of cuts there, I realised that you can’t really get complacent. You just have to keep working hard because all the other guys are working hard out here to try and beat you. I’ve learned a few things this season and hopefully that will stand me in good stead for the months ahead.’
And it seemed the old-timers had not had their noses put out of joint by him being the new, extremely young kid on the block – in fact, they had gone out of their way to make him feel at home: ‘They’ve been very friendly and open to play practice rounds with me – everyone has made me feel quite comfortable on Tour. I haven’t really had any problems or anything. Everyone’s been great, especially all of the Irish guys and all of the guys from ISM have been looking after me well. It’s been a great learning experience and I would rather be out here than at university, starting my first year.’
So, how did it feel to be playing in Ireland – and wasn’t it about time the North got to host The Open? He said: ‘I feel wherever it’s played in Ireland, it’s going to be my home event but obviously it would be great to see it go up North. But I think there’s a lot of courses down around Dublin – you have K Club and Carton House, you’ve got Adare Manor here, and Portmarnock and other courses that can handle big crowds that the Irish Open usually gets. And I don’t know if there’s any courses in the North with the infrastructure set in place that could handle the amount of people you would get: you don’t just have the golfers and the caddies – you’ve got the media, you’ve got the spectators and you’ve got everyone involved in the tournament. It would be great to see it up North, but I don’t see it in the foreseeable future.’
Rory declared he was ‘satisfied’ with his first-round 70 – it was something he could hopefully build on and showed that he had prepared well. ‘It’s a solid round – I didn’t do much wrong today,’ he said. ‘I hit it really nicely. Gave myself a lot of opportunities, which is great around this golf course. Hopefully I can build on it for the next three days.
‘[After] a long couple of weeks over in the Far East, I got home and sort of recharged the batteries a little bit and did a lot of good practice, and it has paid off going into this week. I feel comfortable with my ball striking and I’ve sharpened up my short game which is good, and overall I feel like I’m playing quite nicely. As I said, if I can play like that for the next three days, I won’t be far off.
‘I do feel a lot more comfortable in Europe than I do in the Far East and it shows. I played Spain and Portugal in April and I played pretty well there.’
He was still happy after his second round, even though he only carded a 72. ‘I played nicely today,’ he said. ‘Sort of struggled early on, but was 3-over after three. And then the last 15 holes I played in 3-under, which is really good out there today. At least I finished the round well with the 4 on the last and hopefully that will give me a bit of positive energy going into the weekend.
‘I’m only 4 off the lead, which I’m quite surprised at. With not much wind, I thought the guys would have kicked on a bit but I’m happy to be where I am and in a good position for the weekend. Hopefully I can play well tomorrow and get myself in contention, and I’ll be very happy.’
That was still the case after the Saturday when he hit a second 70, which left him 4-under-par to go with Thursday’s. He was still in with a chance and said: ‘I’ve probably played a little better than what the score reflected today but overall, I’m still in there with a chance so I’m pretty pleased. I’m only 4 shots off the lead.’
He was disappointed with certain aspects of his day’s work, though: ‘I just didn’t hole enough putts again. I putted quite well but just from maybe 12, 15 feet; I gave myself a lot of opportunities and didn’t really take many. Apart from that, the ball striking is pretty good, a couple of shots here and there but that’s always expected. A bit of practice on the putting green tonight and hopefully I can go out and hole those putts tomorrow.’
But Rory would not chalk up that first win as a pro. Instead, Yorkshireman Richard Finch was the surprise winner. Finch shot a 2-under 70 after falling into a river on the last hole to win by two strokes for his second European Tour victory of the season. The 30-year-old, whose first career victory was in the New Zealand Open the previous December, finished at 10-under 278.
At least Finch could see the funny side of it all. ‘I never gave a thought to falling in,’ he said. ‘The momentum on the follow-through took me in. It wasn’t that cold – and I was a good swimmer in my youth!’
Felipe Aguilar of Chile took second place at 280 with a closing 70. Gary Murphy shot a 69 to finish another shot back in a tie for 3rd with Maarten Lafeber (67), Robert Karlsson (71) and Lee Westwood (72). Next up was Rory – and he was not too downhearted with his top-five finish. His form had, after all, been a big improvement on his early season displays. ‘I came into this week knowing I was playing pretty nicely and I just played really solid,’ he observed. ‘It’s a golf course that suits me. I play better on difficult golf courses where the scoring isn’t too low and I just played really nicely. Probably looking back on it tomorrow night, I’ll be very happy with the way I finished.
‘It’s been very good, my first Irish Open as a pro, and to come here with all the expectation on my shoulders, it was absolutely fantastic. The support I got out there was great and I was very pleased with the way I bounced back after my pretty poor start today.
‘There are a lot of positives. I played really well. Just looking back over the week, I probably didn’t hole my fair share and I gave myself a lot of chances going into that back 9 today. I gave myself a good chance on 15, just pushed the putt, and 16 and 17 hit good chips, and I thought the one on 16 was in.
‘I was a bit disappointed with my drive on the last. It was the first time I had missed that fairway on 18 and I thought maybe I could get myself on the fairway and hit one onto the green again, and give myself an eagle chance but a birdie will have to do.’
He left Ireland with his hopes and optimism higher than for some time. A month later, he admitted to reporters to being a little puzzled by his inconsistent form – which included failing to qualify for The Open – but added that he was still enjoying his first full season as a pro, saying: ‘I have really enjoyed myself and while it has been a bit up and down, I feel like I am hitting the ball pretty well. It would be nice to have a good second half of the season and I have set myself the goal of playing in the event at Valderrama at the end of the year. A Top 60 Order of Merit finish would be a good way to start my career. I would also like to get into the world’s Top 100 in order to get an invitation to the US PGA tournament and hopefully both those goals are still achievable.
‘I played well at the Irish Open and have had a couple of quite steady finishes but haven’t been able to be in contention on the final day and that is what I’m really looking to do.’
That ambition would be realised in September 2008 when he made a sustained effort to win his first pro title at the European Masters. He hit a 5-under-par 66 on the Saturday to take a four-shot lead into the final round. Rory was on 13-under-par, four ahead of a group of six, including Robert Dinwiddie (64), Alejandro Cañizares (69) Christian Cevaer (65) and Jean-François Lucquin (69). He was aiming to become the third-youngest to win on tour behind South African Dale Hayes – the youngest – and Seve Ballesteros.
On the opening day, Rory had raced to the top of the leaderboard at Crans-sur-Sierre with a brilliant 63, the lowest score of his pro career and just a stroke off the course record. It meant he would enter the second round three shots ahead of Welsh duo Garry Houston and Kyron Sullivan, plus Argentina’s Julio Zapata.
After that first day, he admitted: ‘This has been a long time coming for me as I have struggled over the last few months but a score like this really boosts your confidence. Hopefully I can kick on from here and keep on doing what I am doing. I have been hitting the ball well in recent months but have been getting nothing out of it.
‘In this round I was getting up and down well and making a few putts, which made all the difference. It has been a great learning year for me and I have learnt a lot of new things about the game. My game is coming along nice and gradually, and maybe by the time I am 24 or 25, I will be contending for some Majors and be in a position to fulfil my ambitions.’
There was that grounded, well-balanced individual speaking again; someone, whom we have already noted, takes ups and downs with the same philosophical approach. This attitude would stand him in good stead – after the lows of the first half of 2008, he would now move on up, just as he had predicted he would do.
A second-round 71 allowed defending champion Brett Rumford back into it – the pair now tied. The Australian carded a second successive round of 67 to reach 8-under-par while Rory managed only a level par 71. But the likes of Alejandro Cañizares, Jean-François Lucquin and Juan Abbate loomed ominously behind them, just a shot back at 7-under-par.
Rory said: ‘It’s always difficult to follow up a really low round – I’ve learnt that before. You rarely see a player go 63-64. A 71 was a pretty good effort. It was quite tricky out there and some of the pin positions are quite extreme.’
But he pulled away again on the Saturday, starting with an eagle at the first. ‘That eagle settled my nerves,’ he told reporters, ‘because I was bit nervous going out there. I worked on my ironplay yesterday and obviously it bedded in quite nicely. I don’t want to take my foot off the pedal now. I’ve got a four-shot lead and I want it to be six tomorrow; I’ll just try to go out and make birdies. It’s a bit like when I was an amateur – I get a few weeks when I’m hitting the ball well and putting well, and you just have to make the most of it.’
But that elusive first pro win was not to be – much to the disappointment also of his manager Chubby Chandler, who had hired a plane to get him from Manchester to Switzerland to celebrate the expected victory. Put simply: Rory blew it, bogeying the 18th to stand level on 271 with Jean-François Lucquin and the Frenchman went on to win the sudden-death playoff. Rory said: ‘Obviously I’m disappointed but I can take a lot from this week. I came here after three missed cuts and found a bit of form.’
Indeed, he took his defeat magnanimously, heaping praise on Lucquin and telling him simply: ‘You deserved to win.’
In turn, Lucquin was equally pleasant, saying: ‘Rory was very good to say what he did. He is a great player, who will win lots in the future – I was not like this at 19.’
In September 2008 Rory also put out a statement on his own blog, www.rorymcilroy.com, to celebrate a year since turning pro: ‘If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be in the position I’m in today, I would definitely have taken that. It’s been a wonderful first year on the European Tour for me and one I’m sure I’ll always remember. I had a great start to my career, making the cut in my first tournament as a professional at the Quinn Insurance British Masters and then going on to finish third at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. I secured my Tour card in my third event by finishing joint fourth at The Open de Madrid and it was nice not having to go to Qualifying School and being able to relax a bit and practise for the coming season.
‘I’ve also had a great season so far this year. I’m in the Top 50 on the European Tour Order of Merit and I’ve achieved all the goals I set for myself, so I’m really pleased with the way things are going.
‘I’ve learnt so much since joining the Tour – I’ve been to loads of new places and met some lovely new people, and I’m really enjoying experiencing all the different cultures.’
By the end of 2008 he would be even happier as his form continued upwards and he posted four Top 10 finishes in his final six Euro Tour starts of the campaign. A few highlights stand out towards the back end of the year – the Dunhill Links, the Volvo Masters and the Hong Kong Open, in which Rory finished 8th, 39th and 2nd.
Rory admitted he had great hopes of winning at the Dunhill Links – the tournament where he had finished 3rd the previous season. And he was certainly in the running after a strong showing on day two, following his first-round 68 with a 69. He admitted to being lifted by kind words from Padraig Harrington after blowing his chances of winning at the European Masters in Switzerland.
Rory told BBC Sport: ‘Padraig called me over on Wednesday and said, “Hard luck,” and that he knew how it felt – we’ve all blown tournaments that we should have won. He’s been second on tour 29 times and learnt how to win; he hasn’t had a second place for three years. He told me to keep getting experience, get yourself up there again, and you’ll win.
‘I need to get into position first to have a chance to do that. If I do, I’m sure my recent experience in Switzerland will help. It didn’t quite happen for me then but I’m playing well again this week and I’ve probably got the easiest course of the three on Saturday. I know the top guys are having to come here to Carnoustie so if I can go out at Kingsbarns and do well, I could be right up there.’
Indeed, he would be right up there – but not at the very top. Sweden’s Robert Karlsson beat England’s Ross Fisher and Germany’s Martin Kaymer in a playoff to clinch the crown, with Rory coming home in 8th place – just 4 off the lead at 6-under-par, he hit 68, 69 and 67 on the 1st, 2nd and 4th rounds. Only a 78 in round three held him back from finishing even higher. At least he had the consolation of finishing above his Irish compatriots. One shot back at 5-under was Padraig Harrington, then came Damien McGrane at 3-under and Graeme McDowell at 2-under.
Rory then exceeded many people’s expectations by making it to the Volvo Masters at Valderrama. It was the 21st and final Volvo Masters and was won by Dane Søren Kjeldsen, who claimed the biggest title of his career to date and the €708,330 first prize. The 33-year-old from Aalborg became the first Dane ever to win the Volvo Masters title and the 20th player to have his name on the iconic trophy. ‘I’m thrilled, really pleased,’ he said afterwards, explaining, ‘It was a slightly different kind of challenge from last year when I picked up seven shots over the final round to force myself into a playoff as I had a lead to defend and Martin [Kaymer] started to put a bit of pressure on me.’
Rory said he had enjoyed the experience – and he had done so well to make it to Spain in the first place. As the organisers made clear in a pre-tournament blurb: ‘The end-of-season showpiece was only open to the Top 60 players on the European Tour, qualification exclusively for those elite stars within those three-score places based solely on their season-long prize money on the eve of the Volvo Masters.’ And Rory had done well enough to make it despite the uneven nature of his first full season as a pro.
By the end of November 2008 he was moving into top gear and getting closer and closer to winning his first pro event. After another great few days’ work in the Hong Kong Open, he finished 2nd. On the first day, he hit 70 and followed up with a fine 64 on day two. But he had mixed feelings about his overall display, telling the post-round press conference: ‘I feel as though I didn’t birdie any of the last five holes and I had wedges into four of them, anyway. A little disappointed but 64 is a great score. I’ll have to get off to another good start tomorrow but if I can just get myself into contention on the back nine on Sunday, I feel as if the more I’m there, the more I’ll learn and hopefully, I’ll be able to close one [a tournament] out sooner or later.
‘I played really nicely in Singapore last week and it gives me a lot of confidence – especially the field that was there last week, beating Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, and getting myself in the mix. It was sort of self-satisfaction last week but I will try and do a little better this week and get off to a good start in The Race to Dubai.
‘The last couple of months have been really good. Ever since Switzerland, I’ve played really well and it’s given me a little boost of confidence and shown me what I can do. I’ve just got a lot of belief in myself and I feel as if I’m ready to win. And if it’s not this week, it might be next week or the week after, but as long as I keep putting myself in these positions, I’ll be OK.’
He followed up with a 66 in round three on the Saturday and was happy with his work, saying: ‘I did very well today – I was very patient out there, I took my chances when they came on the back nine. The 66 keeps me in and pretty pleased.’ He was still firmly in contention – along with surprise package Bernhard Langer, the veteran who was truly enjoying his long weekend in Hong Kong.
Rory paid tribute to his rival, saying: ‘He’s unbelievable! He’s 51 years of age and still out here competing. This golf course is perfect for him – he just positions his ball, left side fairway, right side green, and he just plots himself around here and if he makes a couple of putts, he’s going to be well in there. It’s good to see him up there.’
But by the Sunday night, neither Rory nor Langer would be celebrating a tournament win. No, that honour was to go to China’s Lin Wen-tang, who beat Rory in a playoff – although Rory’s 2nd place finish alongside Italian Francesco Molinari would move the Irishman up to 50th in the world rankings.
Wen-tang walked away with the winner’s cheque of $416,660 after becoming the first Asian golfer to win the title in a decade. ‘It cannot be described how I feel. All I can do is use my smile to say thank you to you all,’ he said.
Rory paid tribute to the winner at the press conference to close the event, but was still disappointed he had lost out – although he accepted that he had learned from the experience and believed he was edging ever closer to his first pro title: ‘Lin made two threes on the last, and he probably should have won it in regulation, and then he made two threes in the playoffs. I thought I probably did enough to make three at the first playoff hole and I had an incredible shot for my second shot, but it just wasn’t meant to be. But obviously it’s still been a great week for me. I’ll look back on it, and I’ve played really well – I couldn’t have done much more.
‘He had to beat me. I didn’t back off and I didn’t make any stupid mistakes. It’s alright, I’ll take all the positives. As long as I can keep putting myself in these positions and feeling the nerves and the adrenaline, I’ll know I’m doing things right.
‘It puts me in a great position going into the New Year and I have two events left in South Africa. If I don’t win there, I’ll hopefully win sometime next year. As long as I keep putting myself in these positions, I’ll be able to pull through, sooner or later.’
Rory also finished 4th in the Barclays Singapore Open in the November – an Asian Tour result that had him laughing, literally, all the way to the bank. His 4th-place finish and $225,000 prize money meant he had become the youngest golfer to earn €1 million in prize money, even overwhelming Tiger Woods’ record. Despite this, he insisted: ‘It’s not the prize money that’s motivating me, it’s still a first win and a continued climb up the world rankings. Also, it would be nice to get that Christmas gift of a first invite into next April’s US Masters. I’m ranked 80th and a great result in any of my four remaining events this year should get me to the Top 50 and into Augusta.’
He arrived in Singapore having earned €979,000 (£840,000) from 32 European Tour pro career starts and a single appearance earlier that year on the Japan Tour. Rory, 19 at the time, did admit: ‘It’s nice to reach such a milestone and I’m pinching myself to think I’m not yet 20 and could earn that much money on the golf course but I’m still your normal 19-year-old and it’s just that I have matured so much travelling the world, playing golf and being in the company of older players along with meeting sponsors and dignitaries other 19-year-olds would not have access to.’
Of course, he wasn’t really your usual 19-year-old. Well, was he? Your regular 19-year-old didn’t play professional golf against the world’s best players, let alone expect to win against them. But as 2008 edged to a close, Rory McIlroy was on the brink of proving not only had he got what it takes, but he could be a champion, too. Yes, the boy wonder from Northern Ireland was about to go one step further in his already remarkable career – and lift his first-ever professional title.