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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | There he was, in the middle of the fairway, a faint wind tousling his hair. The flagstick was nearly 290 yards away, slightly uphill. Water had wound its way up the fairway and now was lurking to the left of the long green which was curled rather like a French croissant. Something was in the air and Rory McIlroy was about to demonstrate what it was.
It was the 18th hole of the first round of the DP World Tour Championship, his last event of the year. He was 6-under par already with the enticing prospect of a birdie, perhaps an eagle, in view. To achieve this he would have to be at full stretch, knowing he had to get everything exactly right – his swing speed, his balance, the contact of his club on the ball, his aim, his judgment of distance – and then doing just that.
With that full, flowing swing of his sweeping through to a powerful finish, he caught the ball in the middle of the clubface with enough spin to make it move slightly in the air. It soared over all obstacles before dropping onto the soft 18th green so close to its target he could almost have kicked his ball into the hole. A 3 on a par-5 and a round of 64, 8-under par, was the result. “That was possibly the best shot I’ve hit all year,” McIlroy said. It was a privilege to see it.
No player in the modern era can make the best golf look so effortless and enjoyable. With his freckled face and his easy manner, McIlroy is a hard figure to dislike while some of his peers could be cast as Puritans in the English Civil War, tight-faced and taut in character.
Here is a question. Does a golfer play good golf because he is happy or is he happy because he is playing good golf? McIlroy’s answer is the former. When he is content, good golf often flows from those wonderful hands, that powerful swing, that smiling face of his.
If he is not relaxed, life is difficult. Twice this year he has visibly not been so. The first was in April at the Masters, which is the only one of golf’s four annual major professional championships that he has not won and thus each time he goes to Augusta the pressure on him to win increases – and each time he does not win the pressure is ratcheted up a little more.
The other time was on the first tee of the Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, last July. A local hero playing not far from where he was born and grew up, he was clearly weighed down by the expectations of all those Irish golf supporters who had practically given him the famous Claret Jug before he teed off. By his own admission, he was nervous, even admitting that his hands were shaking on the first tee. He started with an 8 on a par-4 hole, a 79 followed and that was it.
It is also instructive to consider what McIlroy does after these setbacks. He can bounce back in a way few others can, recovering his equilibrium as if nothing has happened. After an 80 in the last round of the 2011 Masters, which had led by four strokes through 54 holes, he met his manager for lunch in Belfast and his opening words were: “Don’t know what all the fuss is about. There is no problem.”
He proved it by winning the next major championship, the 2011 US Open, by eight strokes. Another example? His second round at Portrush was courageous, full of daring shots some of which only he could have brought off. He needed fireworks and with five birdies in his first 12 holes provided them even though his 65 was one stroke too many for him to advance to the third and fourth rounds. A third example? After his 74 in last week’s second round (10 strokes more than his first round) he had a 65, the lowest round of the day.
These days, McIlroy cuts a very relaxed figure. In China earlier this month he won the WGC-HSBC Champions, his fourth victory of the year, and when he returned to his new home in Florida he found that Erica, his wife, had taken his trophies and displayed them in a purpose-built cabinet in their house. “They had been in storage for 18 months so I hadn’t been able to see them,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice to get them out and have a look at them from time to time and think to myself, ‘This is what I have achieved these past few years.’ ”
At the end of the DP World Tour Championship, where he finished fourth, McIlroy had every reason to look back on his season with real pride. Hiccups at Augusta in April and at Royal Portrush three months later aside, he and his golf had made a regal procession from one venue to another, one important competition to another. “I’ve had a wonderful season and I’ve figured out a few things that really helped me. It has been a good formula and I don’t see any reason to change anything going into next year.”
The European Tour cherishes McIlroy as its one truly world star. “He is one of those rare athletes that combines unbelievable skill with the ‘it’ factor,” said Keith Pelley, the tour’s chief executive. “He has them both. He is a global superstar and any time that he plays it is fantastic. I have the utmost time for him.”
Those of us lucky enough to watch professional golf around the world have reason to thank McIlroy for many of his performances in 2019. Some of them have been a privilege to behold, rather as was his second shot to the 18th last Thursday.
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