Twenty -seven feet, 10 inches. That was what was between Rory McIlroy and a play -off on Sunday in the Amgen Irish Open in the K Club. That is all that was needed to be reminded that McIlroy is able to deliver what no one else can do in Golf at the moment.
It is also what was needed to understand the message that he has been sending long before his career year started sending.
At the age of 36, McIlroy is no longer the brash, young superstar with a lot of runway for him. He has been one of the leading men of Golf for almost two decades. His name has been the main story with every major for at least 11 years, unless Tiger Woods is in the field. He has achieved more than a boy from Noord -Ireland could ever have dreamed. He told us that his priorities are changing in the game, or at least limit it.
In January, McIlroy revealed that he had three goals to achieve before hanging his competitive peaks. He understands that although he is still in his prime, the shadows are longer than they have ever been. There is only so much sand in his hourglass. The Masters, a road Ryder Cup and an Olympic medal. He has preached about playing a more worldwide game and brought his talents to places that rarely get to see him. He wants to play less and play where he wants, at the locations he wants, for the trophies he wants. What he considers important is what matters, and the rest is the rest.
When McIlroy De Masters won to complete the Grand Slam career in April, he had already started the season by winning a second players’ championship and winning at an iconic location in Pebble Beach.
A silence followed, caused by the expected malaise of a supersteratleet who had finally added the peak to which he was aimed for a long time. He spoke about the search for motivation, but also about wanting to soak in a lifelong achievement and enjoying a feeling that only comes once. He sent an increase through his home country during a weekend levy that fails on the open championship, but he let Royal Portrush slide on the air in a way he had not had since he had spoken with Augusta National.
That week at home, the Golfsiad of McIlroy filled. This week, at home in Ireland, another memory was that Rory McIlroy is different – in what he can deliver, in his understanding of his place in the game and in what he now regards as important and fulfilling.
On Saturday in the K Club, after a frustrating round that left him a few shots of the pace, McIlroy turned a ball to a young girl in the crowd and sent her into an uncontrollable state of joy.
“It is amazing to think that a small randomly small thing from throwing a ball to someone [can bring joy]”McIlroy told the ball After his play -off victory on Sunday in the K Club. “I don’t know why, but the pleasure I give people because I play golf or the way I play golf or for whatever reason, but I don’t take it for granted. I know not everyone gets the support I do. I feel very happy that I can experience it.”
Saturday’s gesture was the starter for what McIlroy Sunday 27 feet, 10 inches of the 18th hole delivered to K Club. He needed Eagle to bind Joakim Lagergren and forcing a play -off. Last year McIlroy had a putt on the 72nd hole in Royal County Down to force a play -off with Rasmus Hojgaard. It hung on the lip and did not fall to deliver a final intestinal pot in a season with the devastating loss of McIlroy at the US Open.
But this year is different. So, of course, McIlroy stared down, stood over it and gave the right in the heart, so that all K -Club was sent to a state of delirium.
At that moment, while young Irish boys and girls celebrated his name with their parents and his countrymen while he walked at scoring, Rory McIlroy had already won the Irish Open, regardless of the outcome. The electricity that he sent through the golf world with one roll is currently something unique for him. The moments he delivered for those who packed the fairways to view it are priceless.
That is something that was not lost with the five -time big winner. Sometimes it seems that he still can’t believe that he will be this Rory McIlroy, the one whose dreams all came true.
“I just feel so happy that I can do this, I can do this for these people,” said McIlroy after beating Lagergren in the third Play -off hole. “The support has been absolutely great all week.
“This is absolutely incredible. I like to come home. I like to play in this atmosphere. Yes, these are – moments like these, these are the things you will remember after your career is over. This is a really special day.”
It was a day and a week that underlined what McIlroy has tried to tell us for a long time when his hair started gray. Certain things, moments and tournaments are more important. McIlroy, a history student and has long opened nationally in high regard. That is why he plays the Canadian open every year, as well as the Scottish and the Irish. That is why he will travel these next two December to Australia for the Australian Open.
“It is really important. I think I have announced what I think of National OpenS,” said McIlroy on the RBC Canadian Open 2024. “I think they are the oldest championships in our game and I think they are very, very important. I am very proud of the fact that I have won a lot.
“The opens definitely mean something else,” he said later.
While Rory Mcilroy stood on his 27-foot on Sunday, 10-inch eagle putt and sent it to the hole as an enlightened inflammation that was about to hit a pound of golf dynamite, it became clear all the time.
McIlroy needs motivation, from a different goal since his victory of the Masters. That will be a constant, as with all top athletes. There is the next. But just as he did at the opening at Royal Portush, he thought it always said he would do that: in the places and moments that mean something else. Those he considers special. Those who talk about the part of the soul that Rory McIlroy de Rory McIlroy makes it caused a whole country to float again on Sunday.
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