The Search Can Conclude, Rory McIlory Is Golf's Next True Star

Remember when Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas graced the front cover of Golf Digest Magazine, and all the “experts” where arguing over which one of these two talented young stars would win a major first?

Remember when Sean O’Hair was considered the best player in the world under the age of 30?

Remember when Rickie Fowler was going to be golf’s “next big thing”?

How about Martin Kaymer? Sure, he won the 2010 PGA Championship, but where has he gone since? Kaymer has now dropped to number 21 in the world.

Bill Haas? Jason Day? Rio Ishikawa? Matteo Manassero? Hunter Mahan?

The list of the so-called “young guns” goes on and on. They appear seemingly out of nowhere with their flashy clothing, fancy cars, private jets, multi-million dollar endorsement deals and animated fist pumps. Analysts tout them as golf’s “next big thing”, and they may even win a tournament or two, before disappearing just as quickly as they arrived.

With the exception of a 15-year stretch between Jack Nicklaus/Tom Watson and Tiger Woods, each generation’s dominant player has been very quickly replaced by the next generation’s dominant force.

Walter Hagen was replaced by Bobby Jones. Bobby Jones was replaced by Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. Hogan, Snead and Nelson were replaced by Arnold Palmer. Palmer was replaced by Nicklaus, and Nicklaus was replaced by Watson.  

Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the game was devoid of a true star for more than a decade, which was part of the reason why the hype surrounding Woods in the late 90s was so all-encompassing. We really hadn’t seen anything like Woods since the 1960s, when Palmer and a young Nicklaus took the game’s popularity to a whole new level.

As Woods began an unlikely and rapid decline in 2010, golf fans, analysts, television networks, etc. began scrambling to find the game’s next big star, a.k.a. the game’s next big selling point.

This resulted in an infestation of words and phrases such as “young guns”, the game’s “next big thing” the game’s “next star”, etc.  

Between early 2010 and the 2012 PGA Championship, if you were under the age of 30 and won a single PGA Tour event, you were immediately classified as a “young gun” and the game’s “next big star.”

Heck, you had guys like Fowler who were classified as the game’s “next big thing” before he had even won a professional event. It was sheer chaos.  

But luckily for everyone, this absurd bestowing of the title of “young gun” or “golf’s next big thing” onto every young player that posts even a decent score in a professional event can finally stop, because now, we actually have golf’s next big thing.

Forget about Haas, Day, Fowler, Kim, Villegas, O’Hair, Kaymer, etc. We can finally stop with the absurd and almost wishful thinking that one of these players will develop into the next Woods, Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, etc.

In this day and age of instant gratification, three years to wait for golf’s next big star seemed like an eternity, but he has arrived in the form of a smiling, scruffy-haired 23-year-old from Northern Ireland.

And luckily for fans, the media and the various professional golfing circuits around the world, not only do we have a new star, but we have a star that is incredibly likeable, accommodating and approachable.

You won't see any cold stares coming from this young man.

You won't see him walking by scores of adoring children begging for autographs and a chance to meet their hero as if they didn’t even exist.

You won’t see him cursing, throwing clubs and looking as if his best dog just died after every wayward shot.

Nope, Rory McIlory is more Palmer then Woods or Nicklaus in terms of his personality and likability, only his level of talent more closely resembles that of Woods and Nicklaus than that of Palmer.

He’s Phil Mickelson with the ability to close. He’s Freddy Couples with the ability to live up to his potential.

Two major championship victories do not automatically turn McIlory into the next Woods or Nicklaus. If you recall, a man by the name of John Daly also won two majors early in his career, and we all know how that story turned out.

But, it’s more the way in which McIlroy won those two majors that suggests that this kid may be different.

McIlory didn’t just win the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship; he won each event by eight strokes.

He has so far set records for the lowest score in relation to par in U.S. Open history and the largest margin of victory ever recorded at a PGA Championship.

Folks, that is Tiger Woods territory there. This kid has won his first two majors by a combined margin of 16 strokes and during an era where the so-called experts have predicted that no player will ever be able to distance himself from the field again due to the equalizing nature of modern day equipment.

After almost three years, which to many probably felt like an eternity, our desperate and often absurd search to find the game’s next “big star” can finally conclude, because he has arrived, and his name is Rory McIlory.  

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