Rory's Glory (8 page)

Then it was all over. Confined to another page of history and statistics. As for Rory's next port of call? He flew to celebrate the win with his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki who was playing in a tennis tournament in Cincinnati.

I
n the seemingly never ending see-saw world rankings battle with Luke Donald, Rory regained the number one spot again after his USPGA triumph. On 10.35 points to Donald's 9.59, Rory actually let his true feelings known about that scenario when he revealed:

To win my second major and get to number one all in the same day is very special. I have had a little taste of it switching back and forth with Luke a couple of times. I went back down to number three and back to number one now. It's nice. It's something that completely wasn't on my mind. I just wanted to go out and try and win but it's a great bonus.

On the subject of how he would rate his game, Rory was asked what grade he would give himself for the season. Without any hesitation he responded emphatically:

‘A1'. I heard Tiger Woods once say that to have a good season, you need a major championship. Now I've had two great seasons in a row, no matter what happens from here on in. Hopefully I can play some great golf from now until the end of the year. And get myself ready for another great season next year too.

When Rory returned to the US Tour on 23 August, exactly two weeks after his stunning USPGA win, very few who know the game expected him to win The Barclays. It is extremely rare for a major winner to turn out and win in their next event.

It is a fact that being a major winner means that wherever you go, and whenever you pop your head out, people rush to smile, offer handshakes and blurt out their well wishes of congratulations.

This is particularly in evidence at the next golf tournament. So many of the players want to offer their hand and the back patting never stops. It has the effect of making the major winner feel that they are still in celebration mode. Still up there on ‘cloud nine'.

Even at press conferences before, during and after The Barclays, the media just want to know about the major win – and all the questions about being younger than Tiger and the same age as Nicklaus and Ballesteros. Rory duly finished tied for 24
^th
place on one under.

One week later on 30 August, he teed off in another of the Fedex Cup events: the Deutsche Bank championship in Boston. He got off to a great start to boot with a -6, 65. This put him just a shot behind co-leaders Tiger Woods, Jeff Overton and Ryan Moore.

It was significant to see the mighty name of Tiger Woods up in lights again and leading a big event. In the previous weeks he had actually leapt over Lee Westwood to be number three in the world and that, together with his 64, showed that he was still a major force.

The next day McIlroy started his second round at the 10
^th
and he began in the same form as he had finished the day before. He was on fire. At the 12
^th
he birdied from 18 feet, his second shot finished a foot from the pin for birdie at the 14
^th
and he sank another five-foot birdie at 15.

Rory then eagled the 18
^th
and made yet another birdie at the first to be six under for his round after just ten holes and -12 for the tournament. The run came to an end with two bogeys, before two more back-to-back birdies meant he shot another -6, 65.

It was the best opening two rounds that Rory had produced for some time and it gave him a one shot lead over Tiger Woods going into the weekend. At the halfway point this was his reaction:

I'm very pleased with how I played today, how I played yesterday as well, and in a great position going into the weekend. I got off to a nice start and sort of just kept the momentum going. So yeah, everything seemed to work pretty well out there. I felt like I drove the ball a bit better today and hit more fairways, which gave me some more opportunities to make birdies, and I was putting well enough to take a few of those.

Rory could not keep it going however. He slipped back a little after a 67 moved him to -16 and three shots behind the big mover on moving day – Louis Oosthuizen. The slender framed South African upstaged Rory, Tiger and the entire field with a fabulous -8, 63.

So there was to be no all-star final pairing of Woods and McIlroy for the romantics.

Instead, Rory would have that honour with Oosthuizen but he had three shots to make up. He did get off to a flier, as the quiet and affable South African had a day to forget.

Oosthuizen made far too many errors and resulting bogeys. Although he clawed his way back and made some birdies on the way home to get within a shot of Rory, the damage was done.

He made another bogey on the 17
^th
as did Rory but after he failed to birdie the final hole, meaning Rory just had to make par, it was all over. Rory had won his third event of the year in America and he was thrilled:

I'm delighted to have won my fifth PGA title, and third this year. Going out today I knew that I had to put a little bit of pressure on Louis and I think I did that. I was able to do that playing the first holes three under, and we both made a couple of mistakes on the fifth hole, but he made a six to my five, so I was able to take advantage of that a little bit.

The win brought Rory's earnings on the US Tour alone to well over $6 million dollars for the season, with more events to play. On the European Tour he amassed almost €4 million so he was also in line to do what Luke Donald had done and win both Money Lists.

He had stretched his lead significantly at the top of the world rankings but another golfer was making big noises on and off the course. A certain Tiger Woods finished just two shots behind Rory in third place. Later, he warned the world he was getting better and better.

Three days later Rory arrived in Carmel, Indiana, (not to be confused with Carmel on the Monterrey peninsula in California, home of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood) for the BMW Championship.

Rain in the preceding days had made the ‘Crooked Stick' course soft, which was just the way Rory preferred it. After so much play in hot, humid conditions and on hard and sun baked courses, this meant Rory could ‘use' the ball by putting backspin on it.

His rich vein of form continued as he pummeled the fairways and greens with a -8, 64. Teeing off at the 10
^th
, he picked up a few early birdies and had his only bogey of the day on the 13
^th
. However, his round really kicked into gear when he eagled the par-five 15
^th
.

Birdies on his last two holes at the 8
^th
and 9
^th
capped off a very good day with a delighted Rory telling the media after his round:

It was great. With the soft conditions you could really shoot a number out there and I did. I took advantage of also hitting the ball really well, hitting it in the fairway which I need to do and also hitting it long and giving myself a lot of opportunities. I missed a few but was able to make the most of them. Great start to the tournament.

Joining him at the top after the first round were Canadian Graham DeLaet and Americans Webb Simpson and Bo Van Pelt. Ominously placed just a shot behind – and as good as his word of improving – was Tiger Woods, along with Luke Donald.

Woods, who partnered Rory for the day, actually chipped in from 30 feet for a birdie on the last hole. When he came in to face the media, he gave a huge ringing endorsement of young Rory having seen him up close in the heat of battle. These were Tiger's words:

He's a nice kid, he really is. It's fun to play with him and he's just an amazing talent. You watch him swing the club and watch him putt and play – he doesn't have a lot of weaknesses. This is the next generation of guys coming out. You can see that, in the next decade or so, as he really matures and understands some of the nuances of the game, he's only going to get better. And that's fun to see. The game of golf is in great hands with him and he's here to stay.

With such glowing words from one of the best players to have graced the game, you would have expected an inspired Rory to leave the field in his slipstream. But after his 64, he regressed over the next two days with rounds of 68, 69 to lie on 15 under.

Phil Mickelson matched Rory's best of the week 64 in the third round, and so he was the overnight leader with Vijay Singh going into the final day. Rory would go out in the second-to-last group with his old pal Lee Westwood.

Fijian Singh, who has struggled to get back to his best over the past few years, was the first to crack and never really struck a blow. His playing partner ‘Lefty' Mickelson also faltered and despite finishing with his usual late flurry, he did not trouble the principals.

It proved to be another appetizing gun fight between Rory and Westy as James Corrigan of The Telegraph pointed out:

It seemed appropriate that golf's finest topped one of golf's finest leader boards. While McIlroy and Westwood went at it like two heavyweights, prizefighters of the quality of Tiger Woods, Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Vijay Singh threw their own shots. However, as hard as they tried none of them could bring down the 23-year-old.

Westwood gave McIlroy a real grilling. After a series of stunning approach shots, he kept pace with Rory up until the 13
^th
hole when they were neck and neck in a terrific duel. Then Rory upped another gear and pulled away.

His birdies on the 15
^th
and 16
^th
were true examples of a real champion under pressure. Everything that was thrown at him he took and gave it back with an extra thud. Those two birdies proved the difference with McIlroy winning by two shots from Westwood.

A late birdie from Mickelson lifted him to a share of second place with the valiant Englishman on -18. Tiger Woods was a further shot back tied for fourth on -17. Rory, in just one week, hit winning scores of -20 to win the Deutsche Bank and BMW – 40 under par!

Two wins in a week and three wins in a month. Rory McIlroy was in dreamland. Never mind winning $2.9 million in that week, he was now leading the Fedex Cup rankings and was in line for a cool $10 million if he remained top by the end of the following week.

The press conferences were now becoming almost giddy. Rory probably entered those rooms seeing the same faces and running out of things to say. If the truth is known, so were the scribes! For the record, this was his reaction after the BMW win:

I'm on a great run at the minute. I actually had to scramble a bit out there but I drove the ball beautifully today. It's great to be able to win events like these when the quality [of the field] is so good. I came here with the mindset from Boston that I just wanted to keep going on this roll. Some suggested that I could take a week off and still be in the Top 5 of the Fedex Cup going into Atlanta but I felt I was playing really well and didn't want to stop. I sort of picked up from where I left in Boston, shooting 64 the first day here, and I'm playing with a lot of confidence right now. I'm confident in my ability and with the shots that I'm hitting and confident on the greens. I'm making the right decisions out there and everything is just going to plan at the minute. I want to try and keep it going for as long as possible.

Alas Rory was to be floored by a knockout uppercut at the season's final event, the Tour Championship. The rains had been to Rory's advantage in the previous event but the winds put a huge dent in his challenge and in his bid to win the Fedex Cup.

After four quick bogeys on the front nine, the writing was on the wall. Brandt Snedeker, who had been most consistent in the four Fedex Cup events, came through to win by three shots from Justin Rose and claim the whopping $10 million prize.

An argument could have sprung up and raged as to the merits of ‘consistency' versus ‘wins' to decide the outcome of the Fedex Cup. After all, Rory had won twice. But it is as it is and similar parameters can be drawn with boxing – a win by knockout or points.

Snedeker was runner-up in The Barclays when Rory only tied 24
^th
and he was a consistent high finisher in the previous two that Rory won. A final round 74 from Rory and tied 10
^th
was his undoing. He hid his severe disappointment afterwards when saying:

I'm a little disappointed, but at the same time, Brandt really deserves to win. He played the best golf out of anyone. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to come in here and win. He controlled his own destiny, just like I did. And he was able to come and do that. So because of that, he really deserves it.

Make no mistake about it, Rory is a winner and this hurt – big time. The key words in that statement, which showed that he felt he should have been the victor, and perhaps that the Fedex Cup should be on a ‘win basis', was his ‘just like I did'.

McIlroy would dearly love to have joined Tiger Woods (twice), Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk and Bill Haas as the only men to have won the Fedex Cup since its inception in 2007. But it was Brandt Snedeker, and in another respect, Brandt was a most deserving winner.

In these modern times when there is a growing worldwide call for millionaires and billionaires to give away some or most of their fortunes (as they can still live securely on the rest of it) to worthwhile causes, then the Tennessee golfer was a real winner.

This is what he said after his win and it was really one of the quotes of the year:

I'm not by any means a flashy guy. Of anybody that I know, I do not need $10 million. So there are going to be things that we can really do to help people. So that's the way I look at it. This is unbelievable, to be financially stable for the rest of my career. As long as I'm not an idiot, I should be fine. But I really think we can make a difference and help a lot of Nashville and Tennessee people out.

It was not the colossal amount of money Rory felt disappointed to lose out on. After all, he had just added a further $3 million to his bank balance after finishing second to Snedeker in the Fedex Cup rankings.