Through support from his family, and parents who toiled to help their son achieve his dreams, McIlroy has established himself as one of the best golfers in modern history and one of the most popular recent winners of the Claret Jug.Born in Northern Ireland in 1989, Rory McIlroy took only two years of life to fall in love with the game of golf. Gerry McIlroy was an accomplished player, and his son caught the golf bug quickly.“I just looked like a kid that loved golf,” McIlroy said of his early years. “I just really had a passion for the game. Swinging the golf club in the front room every day or chipping balls into the washing machine, I just loved the game.
“I was never pushed into it in any way. If anything, it was the other way around. … It was always my ambition, my dream. I had to drag my dad out to the golf course to play ..."
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy never felt forced to play golf, developing a natural love for the game and a desire to play as often as possible, one so often nurtured through adolescence.“I was never pushed into it in any way,” McIlroy said. “If anything, it was the other way around. … It was always my ambition, my dream. I had to drag my dad out to the golf course to play, so it was pure, pure joy and pure passion for me.”
Playing whenever he could, the Northern Irishman rapidly made the ascent to young superstar, following in the footsteps of his idol Tiger Woods at the age of 9 when he appeared on a television talk show in his home country. On the show, McIlroy chipped balls into a washing machine, much as he practiced at his own home.Whilst appearing on television raised the profile of a young McIlroy, the dedication and love he showed in playing the game, alongside one of the greatest talents for golf in recent memory, was all part of a larger plan, and dream.“I think dreams and goals and setting targets for yourself, I think that’s the most important thing not just for kids but for anyone in life, for anyone that wants to achieve something,” McIlroy said. “You can’t achieve anything by not setting goals or not setting targets or dreaming big.“I’m a big preacher of dreams, and I was this little kid from Holywood, County Down, a town of 12,000 people. My parents were two very working-class people, and you know I’ve got to this point in my life just because I believed in myself and I had people around me that believed in me.”
To read more about Rory McIlroy’s journey from childhood prodigy to “champion golfer of the year,” click HERE.
The R&A