The 200 million dollar man

Rory McIlroy’s official unveiling with sports giant Nike took on Academy Award presentation proportions but with the world number one denying his reputed $200m (€150m) deal is about the money.

Nearly two dozen TV cameras and some 200 invited guests and media waited at the Fairmont Hotel for confirmation of golf’s worst kept secret.

With Abu Dhabi’s 80-dome Grand Mosque lit up in the distance, McIlroy finally stepped onto a platform leading from the edge of one of the many Arabian Gulf fed waterways in the UAE capital to a stage where he was introduced by Cindy Davis, president of Nike Golf.