With just four weekends remaining until the conclusion of the 2014 calendar year, it”s that season-ending time to review the world of golf from the professional perspective, the local perspective, the literary angle, and the overall impact upon the game itself. This weekend we”ll review the year that was for the 2014 golfer of the year.
Rory McIlroy of Holywood, Northern Ireland, is the without a doubt choice for golfer of the year accolades. Rory had an exact handful of great moments during the past 12 months and is not all that far removed from the distinct possibility that he just might be that one-in-a-generation linkster who is simply better than all the rest. Should he continue to have years like he did in 2014, McIlroy may someday find himself listed in the same sentence alongside Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Just 25 years old, McIlroy was coming off a less than stellar 2013 campaign. He was in the midst of changing golf club affiliations to Nike and had some growing pains adjusting to newer sticks. He also showed poor form when he walked off the course at the Honda Classic in February of 2013, claiming he had a toothache. He went majorless in 2013 after big wins in the 2011 U.S. Open and the 2012 PGA Championship. The talk was that he enjoyed life too much, lacked focus let alone a killer instinct, and was sometimes more likely to show up at a women”s tennis tournament than he was prone to work on his short game.
It turned out that 2013 was a mere aberration. Late in 2013, Rory won the Australian Open, beating local hero Adam Scott by one stroke. He returned to the Honda Classic, openly apologized for walking off the previous year, and played well enough to finish tied for first, losing a four-way sudden-death playoff to Russell Henley. In December of 2013, Rory and his longtime girlfriend, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. were engaged. However, in early May of 2014, McIlroy broke off the engagement, acknowledging that “The problem is mine” and stating that “I wasn”t ready for all that marriage entails.”
From that moment on, McIlroy was the most dominant golfer on the planet. The week following his break-up with Wozniacki, he won the European Tour”s biggest tournament, the BMW PGA Championship at storied Wentworth. Rory shot a final-round 66 to win by one stroke. It was his first win in Europe and America in 18 months. Two months later, McIlroy captured the British Open at Royal Liverpool, winning by a comfortable two strokes over Rickie Fowler. He led the Open Championship all four rounds and added a third career major title to his golfing resume. He became the first European golfer to win three different majors, eclipsing the two-major mark set by Harry Vardon, Tommy Armour, Tony Jacklin, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo.
Two weeks of time off led to a most memorable month of August for McIlroy. Rory won his first World Golf Championship event at Akron and returned to the world No. 1 ranking. Once again, he shot a final round 66, this time running down Sergio Garcia. The next week, he traveled to Valhalla in Louisville and won his third consecutive tourney of this year, capturing the PGA Championship by one stroke over Phil Mickelson. It was his fourth major triumph and Jack Nicklaus responded to Rory”s win by claiming he was capable of winning “15 or 20 majors or whatever he wants to do.” Nicklaus added that “I love his swing, I love his rhythm, I love his moxie. He”s got a little swagger there, it”s a little bit cocky, but not offensive.”
When the PGA Tour concluded its 2014 season last September, McIlroy was in possession of all the heavy hardware. He won the Arnold Palmer award for leading the tour in earnings. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest stroke average. He won the Byron Nelson Award for having the most victories. It all added up to receiving the PGA Tour Player of the Year via the vote of his fellow competitors. He was also the leading money winner on the European Tour and won its season-long Race to Dubai. He also led Team Europe to another Ryder Cup victory.
In the end, 2014 showed the golfing world just how dominant Rory McIlroy can be. He is now in the rarified air of Nicklaus and Woods for having won four majors by the age of 25. He has what it takes to be the dominant golfer of this latest generation of linksters and he appears to have the personality and the mentality to handle the pressures of being world No. 1 in a way that Tiger Woods was never capable of handling the pressure and the press.
Like Tiger, Rory has been a part of the world golfing stage for quite some time. He started playing golf at age 2, starting taking lessons from his current instructor, Michael Bannon, as a 6-year-old. He was a full-fledged member of the Holywood Golf Club as a 7-year-old, and he won the World International”s 9-10 age division at Doral in Miami. By the time he was 16 years old, he had won the West of Ireland Amateur (twice), the European Amateur, set the course record at Royal Portrush, a future British Open site (with a 61), played on the Junior Ryder Cup team, and signed a letter of intent to play collegiate golf at East Tennessee State. However, all that changed after he finished as low amateur in the 2007 British Open and played on the 2007 Walker Cup team. He also made his first professional cut that year in Dubai. As a result, he decided to pass on college golf and he turned pro in September 2007.
Unlike Tiger, Rory seems like a normal person. He parties with large groups of friends and fellow pros after major wins. He looks people in the eye and doesn”t flinch when reporters ask him tough questions. In many ways he is a whole lot more like Arnold Palmer than he is like Tiger Woods. He laughs, he has a good time with this fame thing, and he”s pretty free with a quote. After all, when there was talk of an injured Tiger playing in the Ryder Cup, Rory stated that he would “fancy his chances against him.” He then giggled.
Rory McIlroy is the 2014 golfer of the year. He just might someday become the golfer of note for the next two decades. It should be a lot of fun to watch him deal with his talent and fame. And in the end, if Dan Jenkins writes a satirical piece about him, he just might be the type to laugh off the whole thing in his unique, easygoing way.
