Rory has become a golfing constant

05/12/2022

The Northern Irishman is moving into the same game-transcending bracket as Woods, Nicklaus and Palmer, says Iain Carter, the BBC’s golf correspondent and GBQ columnist.

GBQ is a benefit of the Business Management Group. CLICK HERE to find out more and how you can become a member.

A fascinating image posted on social media showed the top 15 players from 2012 and compared it with those on the same list a decade later. Remarkably, only one player appears on both tables: Rory McIlroy.

He was the World No 1 a decade ago and for much of this season was bettered by only Masters champion Scottie Scheffler in the world rankings. This at a time when men’s professional golf has become increasingly transient.

Such is the depth in talent and the physicality of the modern game, players seem to dominate for shorter periods. Not so long ago the likes of Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau were enjoying periods as pre-eminent forces. There are, of course, myriad reasons – and not just form and fitness – for this but McIlroy has remained a constant and a player of ever-increasing resonance.

During the past 10 years, he has been a top 10 player for all bar 19 weeks, with a lowest ranking of 16. Those who regard him as a streaky golfer are ignoring an astonishing level of consistent excellence in a sport famed for its vagaries and mental demands.

At the start of 2022, I sat with McIlroy at the Abu Dhabi race track where he had been filming a video for the DP World Tour. My first question in our BBC interview was why he had not won a major since 2014. This apparent anomaly is perhaps the reason the 33-year-old does not receive the wider recognition he surely deserves.

His reasoning was that he had not given himself enough chances in the big ones, but he also pointed out that, in the intervening period, he had collected pretty much every other trophy that truly counts.

Pro golf is a privileged profession but it is also a relentless grind. Think of the players who have fallen by the wayside from the lead protagonists of 2012: the likes of Tiger Woods, Luke Donald, Jason Dufner, Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley and Matt Kuchar.

McIlroy, meanwhile, has spent that period turning up on the PGA and DP World tours as the man to beat week in, week out. His is the face on the posters, and his is the voice most in demand at pre-tournament press conferences.

CLICK HERE to find out how you can join The PGA's Business Management Group.

As a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board, he rightly possesses one of the most important voices from the playing ranks, perhaps second only to Woods, who continues to hold sway in a way that Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus once did.

McIlroy has only four major titles, but the consistency of his golf and his intelligent eloquence already put him in a similar bracket to those greats when it comes to deciding the game’s future. He has a burgeoning business empire along with an open hotline to tour commissioners.

It is no surprise that he has teamed up with Woods to set up TGL, a series of Monday night stadium competitions, in partnership with the PGA Tour, that will start in January 2024. Woods and McIlroy have created TMRW Sports along with former Golf Channel boss Mike McCarley. “TGL will tap into the appeal of team golf within an exciting, fan-friendly environment, comparable to sitting courtside at an NBA game,” said McIlroy.

In our Abu Dhabi interview, McIlroy stressed that business interests could never replace the thrill of competing, but that his commercial involvements will ensure he has continued influence beyond his playing days.

He is already having a great effect within the running of the game, and further afield, and that is no small achievement when, simultaneously, there is little sign of his prodigious golfing powers waning.

GBQ is a benefit of the Business Management Group. Exclusive to those who sign up to BMG Plus and BMG Premium options, GBQ is available both digitally via the members' area of The PGA website and is mailed out each quarter.

CLICK HERE to find out how you can join The PGA's Business Management Group.