Here we are, a couple of days past Rory McIlroy’s 33rd birthday (happy birthday, Rory), and no one in the United Kingdom barring Prime Minister Boris Johnson generates so much talk among golf lovers as the Northern Irishman. McIlroy causes as many discussions now when he has not won a major championship since 2014 as he did when he was dazzling us with victories in four of them before he was 25, only the third man to achieve this feat. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were the other two.
McIlroy was then, and remains, a charismatic figure with an exceptional ability to play good golf. He has a thoughtful charm that is admirable for being quietly expressed, particularly to those on the east of the Atlantic for whom understatement and calmness are preferable to their opposites.
Think of him and reassure yourself he wouldn’t have gambled and lost $40 million in as many years as Phil Mickelson is alleged to have done in a new book by Alan Shipnuck, the American golf journalist. McIlroy is an admirable man and golfer, one to look up to, like Davis Love III or Luke Donald, a good role model for any aspiring young professional.
Think of McIlroy and you might remember the sight and sound of a typical drive of his, one that almost burned the air through which it flew with its velocity and height and distance. How can someone of 5 feet 9 inches and comparable lightness of weight hit the ball so far and so well?
Think of McIlroy and you remember the sight of his slightly side-to-side walk, a jaunty one if ever there was one, when he is at full bore. You remember him as a bushy-haired teenager rushing his putts in the 2007 Walker Cup and playing a supercharged singles match against Patrick Reed in the 2016 Ryder Cup, one that went this way and that before the American triumphed on the last hole.
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