In an unprecedented year in professional golf, Rory McIlroy has taken an even more unusual path. He has become that rarest of all titans, someone who is just as talented and influential behind the scenes as he is in front of the camera. On Sunday, perhaps the best player in the world beat the same number of people on the course at East Lake Golf Club as he has off the course this year: everyone. Overcoming a treble start in the FedEx Cup Playoffs and what (at one point) was a 10-stroke deficit to Scottie Scheffler, McIlroy won the 2022 Tour Championship, captured a career-high third FedEx Cup and brought home 18 million dollars. great reward. On Sunday, McIlroy started six behind the Masters champion, who was trying to become the first golfer to earn more than $30 million in a year on the PGA Tour (event earnings plus FedEx Cup prize money) and also the first who has won five times in a PGA Tour season since Justin Thomas finished 2017 with his own FedEx Cup. McIlroy’s momentum was halted immediately with a bogey on the first Sunday, but he plastered the course the rest of the day, playing the next 17 holes in 5 under. At one point, midway through the round, he made five birdies in a nine-hole stretch — leading to a back-nine battle between Scheffler and McIlroy with $18 million on the table — but the highlight of the entire tournament came on the 15th and 16th holes . At the 220-yard par-3 15th, McIlroy hit an iron safely to the left side of the green, away from the surrounding water. Then he buried that 31-foot birdie putt, a nod to what was easily the best football year of his career. One hole later, after a club-swirling wedge was airmailed from a bunker, McIlroy hit his fairway off the club and hit an 8-footer for par, making him the first golfer on the course to jumped ahead of Scheffler at the top. of the scoreboard. For the first 69 holes of the tournament, McIlroy was either tied. suddenly found himself in the lead for the final three. Scheffler didn’t have the game we’ve seen all season, the one that will likely make him the 2022 PGA Tour Player of the Year. He had his worst round of the day with a 73. McIlroy’s 66 followed a 63 that ended early on Sunday as completed Round 3 after being suspended due to bad weather on Saturday night. He shot consistent 67s the first two days. It was, like most of McIlroy’s wins, a performance. It also wasn’t even close to his best performance this month. McIlroy and Tiger Woods headlined a players-only meeting at the BMW Championship last week. The end result of getting most of the world’s top golfers in the same room — and taking ownership of the future of the PGA Tour — was an announcement by Commissioner Jay Monahan that the PGA Tour’s top players have committed to play 13 PGA Tour Events together starting in 2023. Rory has been adamant, both publicly and privately in 2022, that LIV Golf is not good for the sport. Regardless of where you stand on this assessment, it is undeniable that McIlroy has devoted his time, effort and energy to supporting the PGA Tour in trying to help reshape professional golf for the next 10, 20 or 50 years. “I’ve gotten into the thick of things,” he said. “I guess every chance I get, I try to defend what I feel is the best place to play elite professional golf in the world. It’s kind of fitting that I was able to do it today to cap off a kind of year that was very, very challenging and different”. A cynic might say that McIlroy has a lot to gain from a thriving PGA Tour. This is absolutely true. His partnership with Woods in TMRW Sports, an organization that will host simulated competitions in connection with the PGA Tour, will make both men a lot of money. However, we also have to recognize that Tiger and Rory (especially together) don’t necessarily need the blessing of the PGA Tour to establish power and wealth. TMRW could go anywhere and be successful, and the duo collectively could have cashed in with LIV Golf somewhere around $1 billion. When it comes to the sport, McIlroy is exactly who you want him to be and perhaps the very person you envision. Affectionately, he is sick of golf. He dives deep into Data Golf, just like you and me. He scans the LIV Golf lawsuit for humorous elements, just like you and me. If he wasn’t one of the 25 greatest golfers of all time, it’s easy to see him commenting and making fun of it all, just like you and me. There is nothing more exciting in an athlete than genuine humanity and genuine passion. Not to go all “Santa Claus isn’t real”, but most athletes play sports because they’re good at it and get paid extremely well to display that talent, not because it’s stirring their souls. And they certainly don’t care about how what they’re doing right now affects the bottom line of an entire sport. McIlroy has devoted that aforementioned time, effort and energy to a myriad of fronts. He’s not the commissioner of the PGA Tour, but the number of powerful people in his orbit — and the way he’s able to mobilize them toward a shared vision — is enough to convince you he’d be great. This came to the fore last week during the BMW Championship, when a meeting of the Players Advisory Council (McIlroy is the chairman) was followed by the aforementioned players-only meeting led by McIlroy and Woods. Deep involvement in these off-course venues — especially ones as emotionally taxing as competing against LIV golf — can easily affect one’s game on the course, and yet McIlroy has not only done well both, but has absolutely thrived. Even with his mind so busy off the course during this stretch, McIlroy has played some of the best golf of his entire career. The numbers are staggering.
16 PGA Tour begins 3 wins 10 top 10 Top 8 finishes in all four majors Over $28M Earned (Tournament Earnings, FedEx Cup, Comcast Business Top 10) 2.58 strokes gained since January 1st, excluding this week (Scheffler wasn’t any better either)
Perhaps none of this is particularly surprising. McIlroy has always been extrinsically motivated, and a professional golf existential crisis in which the way the entire infrastructure works is up in the air certainly qualifies as extrinsic. Plus, golf has become a relief. “In all honesty, golf has been the escape for me the last few weeks,” he said. “I get inside the ropes, nobody can get to me, and it’s my escape from these other things that are going on.” What’s perhaps more surprising than McIlroy playing great golf is that someone who is genealogically gifted at the game would also be capable of casting such a powerful vision, leading the game into the future with equal grace and conviction. McIlroy was clearly the right man to meet at this time. “If you believe in something, I think you should speak up and I’m a big believer in that,” McIlroy said of the PGA Tour’s future amid the LIV Golf threat. “Really. I hate what he’s doing to the golf game. I hate it. Really… Yeah, I feel strongly. I believe what I’m saying are the right things, and I think when you believe what you’re saying are the right things, you’re happy to stick with him your neck on the line.” Great players are not that common. The same can be said for leaders who are willing to commit to something they truly believe in. Someone who can do both well, especially asynchronously, represents an unusual, perhaps even strange lack. The golf world has largely accepted and embraced the rarest of all McIlroy characters. Someone who is both dynamic and reliable enough to lead his peers as they shape the future, while still playing at a high enough level to continue to shape his present. Someone who is both good enough to make their voice matter and bold enough to use it. Someone who may not have asked for this battle, but whose golf may have been inadvertently elevated to a place that means he’s the only one who can fight it.
