The hard way, in the style that has characterised his career, which has always needed doses of emotion, like when he got the wrong time zone on the day of the singles at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah and had to get to the course with the police escorting him, Rory McIlroy carved his face into golf’s Mount Rushmore, where the faces of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are on display, the only ones who had all the majors.
There is a special power of seduction in the new legend. Perhaps it has to do with a singular ability to show humanity, with and without the clubs, in a mechanical sport that often makes it look easy. But his misguided strategic decisions so often, his tendency to get emotional in victory, on Sunday, and in defeat, just remember the 2021 Ryder Cup, make him unique. If in 1997, Tiger Woods’ victory inspired a generation, Rory’s, to want to be like him; surely we are facing another momentous moment in golf.
Rory has fallen on the right side of history. In his showdown with Bryson DeChambeau he was Batman. The Joker, DeChambeau, said while the playoff was being played that McIlroy had not spoken to him throughout the match. But no one paid any attention to him. He played the role of the loser with absolute neatness. All those who backed him on the tee of the first hole and who multiplied after the second hole when he was an occasional leader, ended up abandoning him to join the Northern Irishman’s party.
In that too, he is a winner. He has distinguished himself as a universal champion. The Irish version of Nadal, loved in his domestic version by both the North and the South. DeChambeau finished on the night of Augusta playing on a putting green with some fans. Out of the scene. Although a wonderful gesture
In his speech to the journalists, he looked like a relieved man. “I’ve been carrying this burden for eleven years,” he said. Sport has a perverse side behind the curtain. Today Rory boasts of having all four majors, yes. But what would have become of his life if he had never won the green jacket? We are talking about a golfer who has achieved 44 victories around the world and $104.2 million in prize money only on the PGA Tour. Surely with the checks he has earned in other circuits he exceeds 140. And without the victory of the Masters would be a tormented.
New horizons now open up for McIlroy. He is back on the path to victory in the Majors to lead the table alongside Brooks Koepka, with five, of players with solid options to continue winning big. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are still active, but the former’s body and the latter’s age give them excessive opportunities. The next stop, in a month’s time, is the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, a course where he has won the Wells Fargo four times and where he will arrive as the favorite.
If he wins, and it would not be strange, people will begin to talk about the possibility of conquering the four majors in the same year, which no one has achieved except Bobby Jones, when it was other tournaments that made up the four pillars of world golf and received the horrible name of impregnable quadrilateral. The term Grand Slam had not even been coined yet.
In a world that no longer wants perfect models but heroes with weaknesses, Rory is a very human champion. He has a friend as a caddie, he is criticized because he should have one with more level, and he does not care. “The triumph is for both of us,” he said, putting Harry Diamond, whom he has known since they were seven years old, in the picture. It’s not a very common gesture among Masters champions. Matsuyama, Rahm and very few others did it.
He is a man who has never presented himself as perfect, who has had ups and downs in all his relationships. He canceled, by phone, the wedding with tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, with the invitations already sent. According to the gossip press, his wife Erica Stoll and he had filed for divorce a year ago, but there they are. Then he shows tenderness when he reveals that he reads stories to Poppy, his daughter, or watches animal movies with her. He was also moved because his parents were not present. They were the ones who trusted him. So much so that his father won a bet (500 to 1) that he had made 10 years earlier when Rory won the British Open. He predicted that his son was going to win the big tournament before he turned 26.
The girl will go to kindergarten next week, where she has learned that her father is famous because other children told her so, while Rory enjoys his new club. All his partners are people who transcended in their own way by incorporating something into golf. Sarazen introduced the sand wedge; Hogan, a unique swing; Player, physical fitness; Nicklaus, the massive television interest in his duels with Palmer; Tiger, the money. McIlroy does not yet have a legacy. But he is the most fun golfer to watch on the planet. And in this era where the future doesn’t matter and we are only told that we must live, it is enough.
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