Rory roars towards Ryder debut
He lies 4th in the World Points list behind Lee Westwood, Pádraig Harrington and Simon Dyson and 3rd in the European table, hot on the heels of Westwood and Dyson.
Furthermore, he has improved one spot in the world rankings and now heads for this week’s $2.5m (€1.6m) Hong Kong Open in second place, 52,321 points behind Westwood in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai order of merit.
In prize money alone, he has banked €2,352,259 while his management company, Chubby Chandler’s International Sports Management (ISM), have ensured that his numerous deals and endorsements have also reaped a very rich dividend.
Few 20 year-olds have accumulated such wealth and enjoyed such worldwide recognition as McIlroy since he turned professional two years ago.
In that time, he has impressed his fellow players, the public and the media as a likeable young man as proficient at handling himself off the course as he is on it.
I recall an American colleague commenting during the US Open at Bethpage last June that “hopefully Rory will stay the way he is”. In other words, he ardently wished that McIlroy could avoid the pomposity that overtakes some of sport’s most famous personalities once they reach the top of their professions.
So far – and there seems no reason to fear it will be otherwise in the future – Rory has remained the kind of guy he was brought up to be by his parents, Gerry and Rosie.
Right now being nice comes easily to him. And yet there have been one or two occasions when you wished he might have chosen his words a little more carefully and wisely – like when he stated that he looked forward to representing “Team Great Britain” in the 2016 Olympic Games when that event was still seven years away.
That comment came as a big disappointment to a number of Irish people who had worked with, helped and supported Rory throughout his amateur career and more recently since turning professional. They regard golf as a 32 county sport and not only McIlroy but players born in Northern Ireland have always represented Ireland in team golf whether as amateurs or professionals.
Indeed, McIlroy and Graeme McDowell are the Irish team in the World Cup in China at the end of the month, just as Ronan Rafferty and David Feherty have done in the past.
Another McIlroy observation that caused raised eyebrows came last year when he claimed he would prefer to win a major championship than play in the Ryder Cup. He mentioned that remark to Phil Mickelson when they were paired together in Shanghai the other day. “Lefty” wasn’t at all impressed and chided: “To win a major, you almost need to play in a Ryder Cup and feel what that pressure was like.”
To his credit, Rory took Mickelson’s words on board describing them as ‘great advice’. And for now, the Fanling course in Hong Kong is the first of two very important ports of call for the youngster over the next couple of weeks as he goes head-to-head with Westwood for the Dubai millions.
Padraig Harrington, 17th in the order of merit, is skipping Hong Kong and so cannot get among the leading 15 eligible for the $1.5m (€1m) bonus pool in the Emirates although he is, of course, in the field for the season ending Dubai World Championship.
The other Irish in the Hong Kong field are Graeme McDowell, 33rd in the money list and Peter Lawrie, 48th and also Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey and Darren Clarke. Clarke is 63rd in the order of merit and so needs a big finish this week to get into the elite 60-strong field for Dubai.
Lowry sees the tournament as an opportunity to add to the €144,843 he has accumulated since turning professional after his victory in the 3 Irish Open in May.
The European Tour is doubly engaged this week because of the arrival of the new JBWere Masters at the Kingston Heath course in Melbourne.
Tiger Woods is teeing it up there for his customary $2.5m (€1.6m) appearance fee and the type of luxury treatment reserved for only the very privileged few.
But Gary Murphy has no such bounty awaiting him. Instead, he will be chasing the kind of money, probably in the region of €35,000, that would put him into the leading 115 players who clinch their Tour cards for 2010. Murphy lies 128th with €259,946 with England’s David Dixon on the 115 cut margin with €230,324. Should Murphy fail to bridge the gap, he will be facing a return to Tour School in Girona, Spain, for the first time in eight years.
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