It's hard to be consistently excellent in any sport,
especially in the case of an individual sport such as golf. Teammates can cover for a bad day from one or
two others here and there but as anyone who plays golf knows, there is no one
to help you out on the course. For a
professional, a bad day means you're not going to win the tournament. A select few golfers have been able to
develop a consistently high level of play over a long period of time. Tiger Woods was the Number 1 golfer virtually
from the time I was aware of golf as a human until his pancake house adventures
were discovered in 2009, with only a slight Vijay Singh-fueled blip in the
middle. Jim Furyk seems as if he's been
in the top 20 for as long as golf has been played professionally. It's not easy. It takes talent, practice, and commitment.
Commitment
is not something that Rory McIlroy seems
to have mastered at this point in his professional career. He has an absurd amount of talent, so check
that box. His technique (that beautiful
whip-like drive) indicates a very high level of practice so no fault
there. His golf is flawless...until it
isn't. Even in the midst of his
staggering success, being the best golfer in the world through 2011 and 2012, he
has had had some pretty low moments. He
melted down so dramatically at the 2011 Masters that even Greg Norman had to
wince. His title defense at the 2012 US
Open was cut two days short by the monster disguised as the Olympic Club
course. He withdrew from the 2013 Honda
Classic under bizarre circumstances. In
fact, we can safely characterize the entirety of 2013 as a low point for
McIlroy.
A lot
of outsiders pointed to McIlroy's personal dealings to explain his 2013
collapse, focusing on his tumultuous relationship with former Number 1 tennis
player Caroline Wozniacki. After dumping
his high school girlfriend for the Danish tennis pro, his game slipped
noticeably (as did Wozniacki's, funnily enough). She was viewed as a distraction by observers,
keeping him from reaching his full potential.
That's
a lie of course, everyone with half a brain knows that McIlroy struggled in
2013 because he changed his clubs in exchange for a bajillion dollar contract
with Nike and failed to adjust. It's an
occupational hazard of being near the top of any sport that Nike or Adidas will
start throwing huge bags of money at you, and the unwary will trip over those
bags. This was McIlroy's true commitment
issue, his decision not to follow through on a long term relationship with old
partner Titleist more impactful than his insidious mindgames decision to
separate from Wozniacki.
But
finally after text message breaking up with Wozniacki, then proposing to her,
then breaking off the engagement after weddings invitations had been printed,
and going through a similar but more fruitful process with his Nike clubs, he
won his first major tournament since the PGA Championship in 2012. In winning the Open Championship this past
weekend, McIlroy showed the steady and dominant play that won him both the PGA
and the 2011 US Open. Despite a slight
dip on Sunday to keep things interesting, the result of the tournament was
never in much doubt after Friday's round.
Now he looks to be on the upswing.
So
maybe McIlroy has proven me wrong after all.
Maybe commitment is overrated in terms of long term sports success. He dropped the clubs, he dropped the girl,
but he's gone right back to winning again.
Maybe we'd like to think that athletes have to hold themselves to certain
standards, and that it's about more than just talent. But talent really does win out where
athletics is concerned. But then again,
maybe we're all taking this just a bit too seriously. He's a 25 year old playing some golf. He's bound to be kind of a screw-up where
life is concerned. His future is a lot
less certain than the result was this past Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment