There's only 'One' Rory McIlroy!

This week, Rory McIlroy's victory in Florida’s Honda classic was enough to elevate him to the top of Golf’s world rankings. The Northern Ireland star has gone from strength to strength in rapid time and has become one of the biggest names in sport.


Along with his number one ranking, McIlroy can already boast a major victory as well as two European and two PGA tour victories. At the age of 22, McIlroy has earned over nine million through his golfing ventures and is currently dating professional tennis star, Caroline Wozniacki. It must be pretty good to be Rory McIlroy at the moment. But where did it all start?

Rory at a young age on a chat show.

McIlroy was born and raised in Holywood, despite being a very famous name and playing a lot of his trade in the states this isn’t the holywood in California but a town in Northern Ireland. By looking at Rory’s childhood in this town, there is no surprise he is such a talented golfer. Rory’s father started teaching his son the game at the age of just 18 months. By the time Rory was two, he was hitting drives over forty yards and at the age of seven he became the youngest ever member of Holywood golf club and still retains the club as his home course.
Before turning professional in 2007, McIlroy was a part of Europe’s winning Junior Ryder cup team in 2004. He also won the European amateur championship out in Italy in August 2006. This was just a taste of things to come for young Rory as his golfing career began to look more and more promising every tournament.


His first professional tour victory came in 2009 at the Dubai Desert Classic, beating Justin Rose by one stroke. He then went onto join the PGA tour and won the Quail Hollow championship in May 2010. He finished 2010 at the Celtic Manor and at the Ryder Cup. McIlroy formed a great partnership with fellow countryman Graeme McDowell in the pairs and was also able to gain a crucial half point in the singles to guide Europe to victory.

Rory struggling through his last round at Augusta.

He moved back to the European tour for 2011 as he wanted to be closer to his girlfriend and his family. 2011 proved to be a very prominent year in the career of Rory McIlroy. It started at the Masters tournament, the first major championship of the year played at the Augusta Golf course in Georgia, USA. The first three days of the tournament belonged to McIlroy. He led by four shots going into the fourth round and looked a shoe-in to win his first major at the incredibly young age of 21. What happened on the fourth day was nothing short of a nightmare for the Northern Irishman as the pressure became too much to handle. McIlroy's inexperience saw him crumble to a round of 80, resulting in a fourth place finish with 4 under par.

Many golf lovers across the world watched that final round with great sympathy for Rory McIlroy. You could simply cry for the boy and just wanted it to be over as quick as possible. We all questioned his mental strain at such a young age and wondered whether he was simply not ready to win a major yet. We were soon proved wrong.


Next major was the US Open and many expected a broken, dispirited Rory McIlroy, what we got instead was a determined and focused Rory. The performance was incredible, his golf was beautiful, his scoring was ruthless and his quest for that first major was relentless. He won the tournament by a mammoth 8 shots. Any doubts about McIlroy's bottle and nerves were soon put to bed with a final round of 69. This certainly vanished any remains of those Masters demons. McIlroy set several records in his victory, most notably, his 72-hole aggregate score of 268 (16-under) was a new U.S. Open record.


With Tiger Woods currently attempting to rebuild his very much damaged career, there has been an opportunity for someone to step up as the face of professional golf. McIlroy has proved to be the one to do this and not only through his abilities on the course. He is an ambassador of UNICEF Ireland and now appears alongside Tiger Woods on his electronic arts computer game. He is very much a charismatic individual with an outgoing attitude. This was certainly evident when he stepped up to the tennis court during an exhibition match his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, was playing in. McIlroy showed off his tennis talent against Wozniacki’s opponent Maria Sharapova in front of a packed Madison Gardens crowd. It showed Rory’s comfort with being in a high- profile and high-mediated relationship.

But like most high profile sport stars, Rory does not come without an element controversy. He has been in spats with the likes of commentator Jay Townsend and fellow Brit, Lee Westwood. A lot of this controversy has been caused by the use of Twitter, a social networking site of which McIlroy is a frequent user. McIlroy told Jay Townsend to ‘shut up’ and that he was a ‘failed golfer’ via twitter. McIlroy has also been criticised for taking three weeks off after his US open win and for blaming the weather for him not winning the British open over his mentor Darren Clarke.


McIlroy's controversies and criticisms are far outweighed by his golfing achievements. Rory has been elevated to the top of this globally loved sport at a very young age and people need to remember, you are going to make blunders and they are going to be made to look a million times worse by the media. I have had no doubts that Rory McIlroy will learn from these mistakes and will continue his pursuit in becoming Britain’s most loved sports stars.


There is a big spotlight on the young Northern Irishman and at 22, he has already showed that he can handle the pressure. With his trademark long curly hair, he has become a very familiar figure in the game, he has shown that he is very charismatic and is not afraid to let his feelings known. His golf achievements have been astonishing and providing he doesn’t take a serious off-road in his career (like a certain Mr Woods), he has a very bright, glorious future ahead.