Despite all the issues that Tiger Woods has gone through over the past three years (the public and simultaneous collapse of his marriage and carefully-crafted image, the constant string of injuries which have led to whispers about possible steroid use, the sudden disappearance of that famed golf game which has led to constant tinkering and switching of coaches, to his precipitous slide down the world golf rankings) I had always stayed on the side which believed Tiger Woods would eventually return to form and wind up breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Major victories. He was just too good for too long for me to believe it had all gone away. But, in watching Rory McIlroy lap the field en-route to winning his first U.S. Open title by 8 strokes and a record 16-under par, I suddenly find myself wavering in that belief.
The main reason I had held on to my faith in Tiger Woods did not come solely from the man himself, but also from the people he was being asked to contend with on his quest. None of the players who had won major titles during Tiger's three-year drought ever struck me as the kind of dynamic stars who would be able to stand up under the weight of the Tiger Woods mystique once he returned to his dominate form. Surely they were all better golfers than I could ever hope to be on my best day and each was capable of putting a magical run together for one week, but I just didn't see a single person who I though would be able to be paired with Tiger on the last day of a major, stare at him eye-to-eye and come away with a victory. They all struck me as nothing more than seat-fillers. They may get one or two, but no one person was going to stop Tiger in his long-term goal. Rory McIlroy changed that feeling.
The biggest sports discussion in golf when Tiger was laying waste in the mid-2000s was "Tiger or the field"? You always took the field, the odds said you had to, but you never felt entirely comfortable with that bet. What if Woods sank a few putts, got himself into that final pairing and suddenly hit a big shot during that first nine? Whoever was paired with him was surely going to collapse under that pressure and your money was as good as gone. But McIlroy is the first player who gives me a feeling that, if he were in that situation, he would simply look around, give Tiger a grin and say, "Hey, ain't this cool?" After playing most of his career in a world in which he could take off for months at a time, then return to find his throne comfortably waiting for him, suddenly it appears that Tiger might finally have someone vying for that crown.
Working in McIlroy's favor isn't just his age (22), but the fact that he has played the majority of his time on the PGA Tour while Tiger has been trying to work through all his post-Thanksgiving-car-crash issues. Rory has never had to play against Tiger Woods at full strength (and probably never will). As such, McIlroy simply doesn't carry the same scar tissue that the players who spent their prime years getting their collective hearts ripped out by Woods do. Talk of Woods as the ultimate closer are nothing more than words to Rory. You may as well be talking about how Arnold Palmer used to play. Youthful ignorance really is bliss.
Some might say that Rory hasn't really proven he can handle the pressure, as he shot an 80 at Augusta National last month to turn a 4-shot lead into a 10-shot loss and that this one win doesn't erase the previous failure. While that is true, in that way McIlroy's back-nine collapse at this year's Master's was a blessing in disguise. He not only appears to be no worse for wear, but it actually looks as though the experience toughened him up. Watching his round on Sunday there was no look of panic when he made a bogey and he never stopped being aggressive with his shots, as if he wasn't worried about a mistake snowballing into two or three because he knew he would be fine. It honestly appears as though he has taken his Master's disappointment and turned it into motivation to never let it happen again.
Also, the classy way Rory handled losing at Augusta has made him a media darling. Pretty much everyone was openly rooting for him to close the deal on Sunday. Even Tiger Woods, while everyone is willing to admit his greatness, has his detractors in the press. Not this kid. Rory already has a lot of Twitter followers, is well-liked by his fellow pro-golfers and shows a media-savvy that belies his age. That buys you a lot of leeway in the media tent. He can have a bad round and not worry about the 10,000 questions Tiger would get about what's wrong with his game.
Now, don't get it twisted, I'm not saying Rory McIlroy is about to go on a stretch of winning 5 or 6 majors in a row. In fact, I fully expect him to go into a mini-slump as he has to learn to deal with the sudden pressure and fame that goes along with being a Major champion at the ripe old age of 22. But, once he figures that out, watch out. I think until Tiger comes back, and then even when he does, Rory is going to be brought up as one of the favorites for every tournament he enters. It will now be "Tiger, Rory or the field"? Basically, after watching all this potential being realised, I don't think Tiger should count on being able to bank majors into his late-40s like Jack. If Tiger wants to get to the magic number of 19, he'd better get while the getting is good. For the first time ever, I'm not sure he's going be able to.
