Some seven years ago Gerry McIlroy placed a four hundred pound bet at 500 to 1 that his son Rory would win The Open before he was 25 years old. Last July relaxing at the new St Andrew's Hotel his money would have looked safe on the Thursday evening, after his son carded an opening round 63. But it was not to be, although it might at Royal St. George’s next month, or Royal Lytham and St Annes next year.
What is clear though, is that Gerry’s money is in good hands and by the time the Open returns to St Andrew's in 2015 the bet will have been well collected. Just a pity the original bet did not include a major as well given the performance at Congressional this week. From where most people stand it’s beginning to look like the Sunday medal at Holywood Golf Club in County Down, as the 22 year old devastates the record books and leaves YE Yang the nearest challenger six shots adrift.
Funnily enough in the wake of the St Andrews second round 80 and a similar score in the final round of the Masters in April, the only things that seem nervous at the moment are the pundits.
Over the past two days they have all been wriggling with fear as they mix words of caution with high praise, sprinkled with warnings to all that there are still two rounds to go.
In April at Augusta Butch Harmon predicted that McIlroy would not win the Masters, and in fairness he was correct, even in some of the reasons he proffered. In the build up his analysis was all about the movement of the ball, “Rory hits the ball from right to left, so that’s the good news,” suggesting that McIlroy’s draw shape off the tee will benefit him on several holes, “but I’m not sure his short game is of the quality of some of the other players.” Credit to Harmon he predicted the ball flight correctly, if only the tenth tee on the Sunday when McIlroy planted his ball between two houses on the left side of the fair way.
On Friday night in a one-on-one with David Murray of Sky Sports, Harmon was again preaching caution given there were 36 holes left to play, and the USGA were bound to make the course harder as the weekend went on. Although Rory found water on the 18th and dropped two shots as a result, the truth is the margin should really be eight strokes. And if this were Tiger at the height of his powers, and the legend of red shirt Sunday still held a sense of invincibility, then most of the world class field would be half packed by now and just playing for a place. Undoubtedly because of Rory’s high profile duff days the experts are perched fearfully of another Devon Loch moment.
This moment came in the 1956 Grand National, when a horse called Devon Loch was racing the final stretch with a five-length lead, only to inexplicably jump into the air and collapse flat on its stomach with jockey Dick Francis unable to get the Queen Mother’s; horse, to complete the race.
How the horse actually managed to do what it did remains unexplained to this day, which is completely unlike McIlroy's experiences at St Andrews and Augusta. Clearly, in his own mind he got out of the moment and his Friday TV interview at Congressional showed a man who is unlikely to make the same mistake again on the Bethesda course. Albeit he knows he will make others, as unfortunately Rory cannot played defensive golf as it is not his style.
What the pundits like Harmon need to look at is the 1997 Masters Tournament when Tiger Woods won his first major championship with rounds of 70-65-67-69 leaving Tom Kite, the nearest challenger, 12 strokes behind. At the time Woods was 22 years of age, and his win of -18 broke the four-day tournament low record at Augusta. As we know, since that win Woods continued to write history amassing 14 major championships, and 71 PGA Tour events.
The feat of Nicklaus in 1962 is also worthy of note as it heralded his arrival to the game, which he still dominates to today with an unrivalled 18 Major titles.
That tournament was at Oakmont Country Club, near Palmer’s home, who at the time was the most popular golfer in the world. The young upstart chasing his crown was a brash Nicklaus, who was unpopular with the crowd, seen as badly dressed, slightly portly and far from the popular player he was to become in the years after. Despite being taunted by the crowd, Jack won the 18-hole playoff against Palmer – securing his first major at 22 years of age.
Although there was little doubt entering the 1962 U.S. Open, that Nicklaus was going to have a good PGA Tour career, as he was the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] Championship winner, also a 2-time U.S. Amateur champion , with two previous U.S. Opens finishes of second and fourth place. But in the 1962 event he was in his rookie year as a professional, with no wins in 17 starts, and was not really expected to challenge the status quo – never mind win the event in Arnold Palmer’s back yard. But he did, no doubt to the surprise of the golf pundits of the time.
It was Arnold Palmer, after losing the play-off, who perhaps uttered the most prophetic words about Nicklaus as he clutched the trophy, "Now that the big guy is out of the cage, everybody better run for cover."
So started the era of the Golden Bear.
So will start the era of Rory McIlroy in Bethesda this weekend.
Dylan Manning
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