No One Hates Rory McIlroy (Including Me)

Yeah it's a golf post...95% of you can stop reading now.

He does not have a flaw in his game. He has the "best swing ever." He is golf's next superstar. It's the opposite of Game of Thrones. The character easiest to hate has lost his head (for the moment) while the "good guy" seems to have risen to power. And of course everyone's happy. We've got a baby-faced kid who's nicer than your mom and less angry than the Pope who has just won a major by the lowest score to par in said major. And I, a long-time TW fan, am even impressed and happy for him, and a decent fan of his. But I've just got some apprehension about suddenly crowning him King of Golf.

First of all, he has won 1 major. And 1 non-major. Total. That other guy had won 3 tournaments by the time he won his first major and won 3 consecutive U.S. Amateur titles even before those. And then he won 67 more tournaments (yep).

He is also in possession of, apparently, the greatest swing of all time (yes this has been already said). Is he swing incredible? Currently it is. There are very few faults, save for a slight tendency to flip the club before a proper release, resulting in a pull-hook (see the 2011 Masters, Round 4). It has been postulated that without any faults in the swing, he could continue this forever. I mean, if you're perfect, you should be able to be perfect all the time, no? I have a few questions: others have been lauded to have impeccable swings as well, most recently Tiger in his prime with Hank Haney. And yet somehow, things can go awry. Secondly, who is to say that Rory's swing doesn't cause significant damage to his knee or his leg as well? He certainly loads his left leg just as much as most other golfers, and this creates an incredible strain on those joints, most notable the ACL and MCL. Don't believe me? Watch the flex in his knee:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMKwEflZYVs

Moving on to Rory the person I suppose. Sure NOW he's nice, well-mannered, and relatively gentle. He's also 22 years old. It is completely in the realm of possibility for him to change as he finds a little more success now, is it not? I am not rooting for him to fail, and I don't think anyone is (a point I will discuss in just a minute), but I will watch with great interest who he really turns out to be. It's easy to be a good person in success. It's almost easier to be a bad one.

And this brings me to perhaps my most important theory, argument, or whatever you want to call it. No one hates him. Everyone seems to like him well enough. And he pleases everyone. But I ask you, in sports, is that really all that interesting? Part of what makes Tiger a fascinating character to watch is how he polarizes golf fans to such a staggering degree. And this didn't start with Turkey Day Tree Trouble (that's what I like to call it). He swears on course (as does, if I had to guess, 99.95% of all people on a golf course and most certainly including yours truly), he gets excited, he gets angry, he gives fist pumps, he throws clubs...he thrives on pressure and, as he says, all that matters is "The W." Golf has been and for the most part still is a rich, fat, drunken, smoking, white guy's game and all of sudden this, GASP, HALF-black kid (or whatever the fraction is) came onto the scene and totally degraded the other golfers.

And you know what? All those rich, fat, drunk, smoking, white guys got a little pissed. But he inspired a whole new generation of golfers. Those who grew up with him and began to golf because of him play golf as a SPORT, and not just some past time where we go out and hit a ball around, more as a means to drink beer and smoke cigars than actually compete and play well. You know what? If I wanted to drink beer and smoke cigars, I'd go to a bar or sit on someone's porch. I wouldn't spend at least $30 dollars to not care about what my score is. But to us golf is a sport; we want to do well, hell, we want to fuckin' WIN.

So that's why I don't know what to make of Glory Rory Hallelujah. I like him, and I think with a little more personality he could be great for the sport. But, and we can thank Twitter, Facebook, Ritalin, and our general lack of being able to sit still for more than 30 seconds, we are so quick to judge and to make bold, sweeping predictions, that I think we have to really give him some time before saying, "You know he is the best player I've ever seen" (really, Graeme McDowell, REALLY?). It seems that Rory might need a little more aggression, a little more anger, a little more SOMETHING. Tiger wears red on Sunday because it symbols aggression. Rory wore various stages of baby blue throughout the weekend, including Sunday, symbolizing that...umm...it's a boy! (?) He talked about being more selfish and getting more aggressive, but I still wanna see more. Give me a reason to cheer for you, but give people a reason to hate you...you'll be more popular, and perhaps more successful for it.

But don't ever count out The Return of the King...