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"Toto, I’ve got a feeling we're not in Kansa anymore" The Wizard of Oz
Not an easy feat moving from the major news story in all modern media forms to becoming the news headlines themselves all within seven days. But then that was the life and times of golfer Rory McIlroy last Sunday at Wentworth. Where in a blaze of glory no PR aids or press releases were needed to herald the latest winner of the BMW PGA Championship. A tournament that saw the Holywod golfer start the event fielding questions about very personal aspects of his life. To spraying champagne on the patrons by the final day. Proving a sports management nightmare given the promise of what seemed like car crash television following the news his cancelled wedding plans.
However the unexpected goes with the territory in this era of instant news, social media and smartphones. All of which leaves any sports person open to unsolicited and unwanted scrutiny should titillating personal news arise.
To be fair the Wozzilroy relationship - that between Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki - was lived out on Twitter. A factor which certainly aided and abetted the off course events of the last seven days. Where once again, McIlroy found himself under the spotlight before a major tournament, which only his sense of timing seemed to comprehend. Not unlike the Irish Open last year when the first rumblings arose of his breakup with Horizon Sports. Or indeed a year ago at Wentworth, when after the first rumours about a Wozzilroy break up. Rory raced to Paris to settle the lose tongues still by appearing by Wozniacki’s side. .
All occasions when a need for media management seemed to cry out. Or a suggestion that things could have been handled better. But could they?
Rory McIlroy is a golfing wizard who has been since birth gifted at the game and probably fails to realise at times how talented he is. Given he has always been capable of doing magical things with a bag of clubs. Coined with a grit and determination McIlroy has set standards and laid promise ever since he could walk and those familiar with the game around Ireland would attest to those memories. So his rapid progress through the amateur ranks, Walker Cup, Junior Ryder Cup in 2004 and then the professional game was always the assumed trajectory. His arrival in 2008 under his own terms with his management at the time - beyond his parents – in the figures of Andrew Chubby Chandler of International Sports Management.
Which in a way even seemed top heavy given the achievements thus far.
But his first PGA Tour win at Quail Hollow in 2010 showed us the reason, and surprised many outside his immediate cult following at the same time. Perhaps it was the manner in which he slayed the field on the Sunday - with a final round 62 - that woke up the greater golf world.
Rory’s rich promise then took him to hold the lead at the 2011 Masters for three days and head into the back nine at Augusta on Sunday floating easily at the top of the leader board. When suddenly a rush of blood to the head saw him rip a driver from his bag and slam the ball down the left side of the tenth fairway almost out of bounds. In an instant the infallibility of youth was laid bare for all watching. A sense of tragedy brought to the three days achievements as Rory's round unfolded in front of millions.
It was afterall Masters Sunday and the leader of the tournament was suffering decombustion. The Major dream disintegrating in moments with caddie JP Fitzgerald helpless, as were Rory’s parents, Chubby and others. The day making the wrong type of history with a round of eighty strokes.
Naturally for the next few months Rory became invisible with every manner of expert predicting a doomsday scenario following his Augusta collapse. Who could have thought otherwise about a 21 year old who had seen the Green jacket leak from within his own very grasp. A chance few golfers even see in a life time with the game is littered with names of golfers who never made it in Augusta: Lee Trevino, Peter Thompson, Greg Norman, Nick price and Ernie Els. Just as a for instance. So no shame in that really should that prove the case for McIlroy. There were other majors to be chased. Albeit that Sunday in Augusta would make it a tougher road to travel.
For a few months McIlroy went about his work and then showed up at Congressional, quietly, shedding the spotlight, sticking to his pattern and looking up as little as possible. This was after all the first major since The Masters. Then on June 19th with a winning margin of eight shots Rory McIlroy stormed the U.S. Open at record pace to become the first player to reach 13 under. The first to card a 72-hole aggregate score of 268 and beating records previously held by Jack Nicklaus at Baltusrol in 1980, Lee Janzen also at Baltusrol thirteen years later; Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000, and Jim Furyk at Olympia Fields in 2003.
More importantly McIlroy became the youngest winner since Bobby Jones in 1923. Though the masters still not forgotten and still on the to do list.
But as is the McIlroy way, things happen at their own speed and much of the problems it seems are in the expectations and timelines of others. An impatient public, a hungry media machine or a sport that desperately needs a replacement for the Tiger Woods phenomenon. But what is very clear to any Rory watcher is that McIlroy does it at his speed, in his way and the manner in which he believes is right.
Brave, tough, and emotional at the same time. There is also a conviction of thought that will remain once things are decided. Rarely flinching from those tough decisions. Even if it be announcing the end of his engagement and cancellation of his imminent wedding the day before the flagship European Tour event at Wentworth. At the same time strong enough to stay in contention for the three days and then complete a Tigeresque sweep on the final day of seven strokes to better the field - and win. Proving a management company’s worst nightmare.
But pure box office all the same.
Clearly a sense of delight was very palpable in McIlroy’s easy smile when celebrating on the eighteenth green of the West Course on Sunday. There is no pressure release like winning.
Yet that courage of conviction is no doubt also interpreted as stubbornness by some. As a spoilt brat by others. And clearly a somewhat ungovernable nature in the conventional context of the word. Most manifest when months after his US Open win McIlroy chose to break up from ISM and his two minders, Chubby Chandler and Stuart Cage with the minimum of notice. More problematic as it came in the slipstream of that first major win that would allow all parties to profit from the barren earlier years. Not least ISM with whom he had seen his destiny and who had also secured valuable sponsors with financial opportunities. But as testament to Chandler's ethos of a hand shake in business, both sides walked away without too many whispers.
In doing so McIlroy joined an Irish company where his compatriot Graeme McDowell was stabled, Horizon Sport.
Many saw it as a surprise decision at first. But in time it proved good business as ISM seemed over focussed on the European Tour and less on the PGA Tour - outside the majors. It also saw McIlroy return to The Players and live the PGA rivalry more frequently. Rewarded nicely with a win at the first Honda Classic – before it became synonymous with toothaches – and an unexpected win at the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
After hearing the murmurings of a lull in form, or failure to convert the Wells Fargo play-off weeks earlier, the conjecture was ended by securing the second major. Doing so with an ease in the final round with 66 shots. Becoming the youngest multiple major champion since Seve Ballesteros won the 1980 Masters Tournament. The victory also taking him to number one spot in the official world golf rankings for the first time. His childhood dream achieved.
As someone once said, and it should be applied to McIlroy, he does it his way.
In the end there is no real secret to sports management. Not just that one thing either that we all seek as the magic solvent. Little beyond some common sense, commercial acumen of sorts and an ability to relate to people – who you will have to deal with at some of the most difficult times of their life. All of what a good caddie has and some additional good fortune perhaps. In truth most of what is done is by the player is the real deal. Rory proved that this past week. It is they who win and not the hordes who claim a slice of them. In fact one could argue that even the PR work on the Wednesday was unnecessary as McIlroy just did all his talking on the West Course. And one that Rory does not particularly favour.
Funny though that has now probably changed. So have a lot of things now. McIlroy is right back on the major yellow brick road.
"I’ve got a feeling we're not in Kansa anymore"
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