Take a look at the figures and you will see how Rory McIlroy is playing his way into a rich man’s world, into that multimillion dollar/euro zone that distinguishes and defines the elite.
In some news reports on his potential future wealth you will see him mentioned in the same sentences as David Beckham.
We have all read the speculated numbers linked to a deal with Nike, the suggested $250m over ten years.
It is a new league and a different place for McIlroy, who is still only 23.
The sport of golf and its big name sponsors and manufacturers are rewarding him for his genius; for ability on occasions to transform his clubs into wands and weave his magic across a world that wants and waits to see him play.
Just five years into his professional career, McIlroy is now box office, his romance with tennis player Caroline Wozniacki all part of the appeal.
He is big stage, and, according to his uncle, more relaxed.
“I think he knows now how good he is,” Colm McIlroy told me.
“He knows himself he’s the best player in the world.
“He knows his best is better than anybody else’s best, even Woods,” Colm continued, “and it’s made him calmer.”
But not just calmer, richer also, financially and in terms of his play.
“Obviously he’s enough money to do him a day or two,” his uncle continued in that understated McIlroy way of saying things.
And what he means is enough money to be able to focus completely on those things that really matter in his sport; the Major titles that make the golfing greats stand out from all the rest.
Nicklaus and Woods have set the standard, and McIlroy has begun the chase.
He is roller-coaster.
We have all watched him on television miss the unmissable and then make the unmakeable.
It is part of the fascination, part of his story; a story that already has placed him above George Best and Alex Higgins on that league table of Northern Ireland sporting greats.
McIlroy is a World name; a World brand and a World leader, identified not just within his sport but across the sports as the successor to Woods.
Already McIlroy has won the US Open and USPGA titles; his run away Majors in 2011 and 2012 respectively, the first coming soon after his collapse in the Masters tournament last year.
That experience could have broken him, but it didn’t.
This year, beside his name at the very top of the European and PGA Tour money lists you will find multimillion euro and dollar totals.
The figures criss-cross on occasions as his victories in some of the biggest events contribute to his cash tally on both tours.
In the States the figures are $8million-plus, almost two million more than Woods in a season when McIlroy not only won more money, but tournaments also.
And he has also opened up a significant lead at the top of the world rankings; a gap that will be hard for those chasing to close.
On the European Tour his competition earnings for 2012 are a little more than 5.5 million euro, around a fifth of that total coming last weekend during a brilliant win in Dubai.
Even by McIlroy’s highest standards, it was a spectacular victory that spoke loudly of that calmer, more confident, wiser and more mature player.
He was in the company of the World Number Two Luke Donald and chasing a score set by Justin Rose.
Those of us watching on television last Sunday morning knew it was going to take something special to win, and McIlroy found it as he played the last five holes five under par, including a surprisingly safe approach to the last.
Indeed, his uncle Colm teased him in a text message: “Well done nephew,” he wrote, before adding: “A bit gutless down the last.”
He told me that Rory responded along the lines of: “Ha, Ha-just thought I’d let you all sweat the last couple of holes.”
And that banter between uncle and nephew, between club golfer and global star, tells us something.
It is an indication that for all the money, all the success, all the headlines and news, to his family and friends Rory is still Rory.
“I can’t see any change whatsoever,” Colm said.
With McIlroy’s long-time coach Michael Bannon now committed to spending more time with him on the different tours, Stephen Gordon has become the new teaching professional at the Bangor Club.
He is not surprised by the growing story and status of McIlroy; for this reason, that the young golfer who grew up with all the comparisons to and predictions of being the next Woods, believes in himself:
“In his head, it was always what he was going to do,” Stephen Gordon said.
“He has such belief in his own ability. It won’t have shocked him.”
This week, the McIlroy news is his inclusion on the shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year; a confirmation of his growing appeal and recognition beyond the boundaries of his own sport.
“If it hadn’t been an Olympic year, he would have hacked it,” his uncle Colm said, meaning that this time round Mo Farah and Bradley Wiggins have an advantage.
McIlroy has his own Olympic question still to answer; whether to compete for Britain or Ireland in Rio in 2016.
Whatever his choice, it will be controversial, but only among those who put flag before performance.
The real McIlroy story, on a global stage, is his march towards those high places of sporting greatness that will put him in a very rich man’s world.
6 Comments
His performance at the Masters next April could prove to be THE defining tournament in his career so far. Victory and he really has raised the bar. But he has someway to go yet to equal the achievements of you know who. And nobody realises that more than Rory. So let’s sit back and enjoy the excitement and pleasure this young man brings to all our lives in a part to the world which – with the notable exception an emerging Ulster rugby team – has precious little to cheer about.
Deric – in a conversation with Rory a long time ago he acknowledged Woods remarkable achievements and set his own target – to be the best player of his generation.
He is on his way to achieving that ambition. Brand McIlroy is global. Easily one of the most recognisable sportsman on the plant. Especially in Asia. Because that’s where he will be spending more and more of his time. That where the real money is
Q.1: Is it sport?
Q.2: Could he be a team player?
Q.3: Could he hold his place with Cross Rangers?
Q.4: Would the dark winter evening training sort the boy from the men?
Q.5: Would Caroline Woz’ername be any good at making the sandwiches?
On question 5 Eddie ……you have set the bar too high……as for Cullaville..,,,a bit like a packet of Woodbine…..not a Player among them! Yo!
Touché, as we always said in Glassdrumonaghy. Eamonn, the old ones are still the best. At a time when even I was dragooned for an odd game with the Blues, one or two McCreesh’s signed up with the Rangers – a much more traitorous act in the ’50s than wee Rory opting for TeamGB in Rio. We outkavanaghed Kavanagh on the superiority of the mini-parochial over the provincial, even without a Caroline at the hang sangwiches.