Mighty McIlroy proving mettle

As Rory McIlroy walked to the tenth tee box yesterday, bidding to win his second major championship in as many years, he could have been forgiven for offering two fingers at many of the journalists (myself included) who would have openly questioned his commitment to the game over the past number of months.

He has a right to be frustrated by all the questioning, of course, but he’d better get used to it — that comes with the territory — especially if you are the pro game’s greatest emerging talent coming off a sensational year.

For those of us who were swept away in awe by his sheer talent and his burgeoning sense of theatre, we could have been excused for daring to think that finally we had a youthful and exuberant Irishman capable of rivalling and even regularly beating the great Tiger Woods on golf’s greatest stage, the Major Championships.