When athletes retire after years of devotion to their craft, it’s common to trade uniforms for suits in an attempt to rebuild the game that once shaped them. While some players enter the media as a team, there are a small number of players who transition to roles as key decision-makers within leagues or teams.
In an unprecedented year in professional golf, Rory McIlroy embarked on an even more unusual path. He’s become the rarest of all giants to be as talented as he is in front of the camera and influential behind the scenes. I’ve beaten as many people on the golf club course as I’ve beaten off the course this year: everyone.
After overcoming a triple-bogey start in the FedEx Cup playoff finale and being 10 shots behind Scotty Schaeffler (at one point), McIlroy won the 2022 Tour Championship and achieved his third career FedEx Cup record. , got $18 million. Grand prize.
McIlroy started the Masters champion back six on Sunday. The Masters Champion will make him the first golfer to earn more than $30 million (event revenue plus FedEx Cup prize money) in a single year on the PGA Tour, and the first golfer to win five times I was doing it. His first on the PGA Tour season since Justin Thomas capped off 2017 with his own FedEx Cup.
McIlroy’s momentum was quickly halted with a bogey on opening Sunday, but he played the ensuing 17 holes at 5-under and filled the field for the rest of the day. At some point in the middle of the round, he scored five birdies in his nine-hole stretch and devolved into a battle between Scheffler and McIlroy back his nines at the $18 million table, but the split for the entire tournament. The point has arrived. 15th and 16th holes.
On the 220-yard par-3 15th hole, McIlroy safely hit his iron to the left of the green, clear of the surrounding water. Then he buried his putt that his 31-foot birdie. One hole later, after twirling with a club from his bunker on the fairway and hitting an airmail wedge, McIlroy took the pitch off his stick and at par he hit an eight-footer to move past Schaeffler into the lead for the first time. I became a golfer. of the leaderboard.
McIlroy was draw or draw over the first 69 holes of the tournament. He suddenly notices the last three leads.
Schaeffler didn’t have a game seen all season that would likely make him the 2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year. McIlroy’s 66 followed his 63 and Round 3 ended early on Sunday after being interrupted by bad weather on Saturday night. He shot the same his 67 in his first two days.
Like most McIlroy wins, it was the show. It also fell short of his best performance of the month.
McIlroy and Tiger Woods led a players-only meeting at the BMW Championship last week. The top of the world He has most of the golfers in the same room and the end result of being the future of the PGA Tour is Commissioner Jay. It was an announcement that I promised to play. From 2023, we will be holding tour events together.
Rory has declared that in 2022, both publicly and privately, LIV golf is not fit for the sport. Or trying to help rebuild professional golf for 50 years, there is no denying that he has invested time, effort and energy into championing the PGA Tour.
“I was in the middle of things,” he said. “Every chance I get, I try to defend what I feel is the best place in the world to play elite professional golf.It has been a very challenging and different year.”
A cynic might say McIlroy has a lot to gain from PGA Tour success. That’s right. His partnership with Woods at TMRW Sports, an organization that hosts simulated competitions in partnership with the PGA Tour, stands to bring both men big money. However, we must also admit that Tiger and Rory (especially when they are together) don’t necessarily need the blessing of the PGA Tour to consolidate their power and wealth. TMRW could go anywhere and be successful, and the duo he could have earned around $1 billion in total at LIV Golf.
When it comes to sports, McIlroy is exactly who you want, and perhaps exactly who you envision. He’s as deep into Data Golf as you and I are. Like you and me, I’ve been researching the LIV Golf lawsuit for humorous information. Like you and me, we joke about all this.
Nothing appeals to an athlete more than genuine humanity and genuine passion. “Santa Claus isn’t real” is no excuse, but most athletes do sports because they are good at it and get paid very well to showcase their talents. And we care very little about how what they’re doing now affects the through-line of the sport as a whole.
McIlroy has put the aforementioned time, effort and energy into countless fronts. He’s not the commissioner of his PGA Tour, but the number of strong people in his orbit and the way he inspires them towards a shared vision convinces him he’s going to be great. enough to let
This came to a head last week at the BMW Championship when a Player Advisory Committee meeting (with McIlroy as chairman) took place, followed by a players-only meeting led by the aforementioned McIlroy and Woods. Being so involved in these off-course his arenas, especially those that are as emotionally taxing as his battle with LIV Golf, could easily affect his play on the course. While his mind has been very busy off the course during this stretch, McIlroy has played the best golf of his entire career.
The numbers are staggering.
- 16 appearances on the PGA Tour
- 3 wins
- top 10 10
- Top 8 finish in all four majors
- Over $28 million in revenue (Tournament Wins, FedEx Cup, Comcast Business Top 10)
- 2.58 strokes up since Jan 1, except this week (even Schaeffler hasn’t improved)
Perhaps this is not particularly surprising. McIlroy has always had an extrinsic motive, and the existential pro-golf crisis of the functioning of an entire infrastructure hanging in the air certainly qualifies as an extrinsic motive. has been deferred.
“Honestly, golf has been an escape for me in the last few weeks.” is.”
Perhaps more amazing than McIlroy playing great golf is that someone generationally gifted in the game can cast such a strong vision and take the game into the future with equal parts grace and conviction. McIlroy was clearly the right person for this moment.
McIlroy said of the PGA Tour’s future amid the threat of LIV Golf, “I think if you believe in something, you have to speak up. I believe very strongly in this.” I really do.I hate what it does to the game of golf.I hate it.I really do… oh yeah I feel strongly.I’m saying You believe what you are saying is true and you are happy to stick your neck out.”
Great players aren’t that common. The same is true for leaders who are willing to put themselves into what they truly believe. Those who can do both well, especially asynchronously, represent a rare, perhaps curious rarity.
The world of golf has embraced and mostly embraced the rarest of all McIlroy characters. A man who is dynamic and dependable enough to lead his peers in shaping their futures, yet still plays at a level good enough to continue to shape them in the present. Someone who may not have asked for this fight, but who may have been unintentionally pulled to a place where golf could have been.
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