DORAL, Fla. — The proud parents and their successful son sat together over some pub food on Tuesday night at the Doral Resort and Spa and talked. It had been such a whirlwind 48 hours for Rory McIlroy that he and his parents hadn’t had a chance to chat about his historic accomplishment.
On Sunday afternoon, the 22-year-old McIlroy won the Honda Classic and became the second youngest player ever to become the No. 1 ranked player in the world.
On Sunday night, he was on a plane to New York to visit with his girlfriend, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, who was in town to play an exhibition match against Maria Sharapova at Madison Square Garden.
On Monday night, Wozniacki called McIlroy out from the stands to the court to play a point against Sharapova and he won it.
“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,’’ McIlroy said. “Maria was nice; she hit it back to me at quite a gentle pace.’’
By Tuesday afternoon, McIlroy had flown back to Miami to practice for the WGC-Cadillac Championship, which begins today at Doral’s Blue Monster.
On Tuesday night he was with his parents, Gerry and Rosie, enjoying a quiet meal.
“With everything that had gone on we hadn’t really had a chance to talk about it,’’ Gerry McIlroy was saying over a vodka and Diet Coke. “When I asked him what it feels like, he said, ‘It feels great, but it’s just another milestone.’ ’’
This is who McIlroy is. He’s driven to be great, but he’s not Tiger Woods, whose drive to be great always bordered on obsession dating back to his youth.
When he was a kid, Woods famously had a poster of Jack Nicklaus on his bedroom wall and he used it as motivation, determined to win more major championships than the record 18 Nicklaus won.
When he was younger, McIlroy had a magazine picture of a mansion Woods lived in pinned to his wall, telling his parents he’d love to live in a place like that someday.
Now he can. And he does.
But McIlroy is not obsessed with winning more majors than Woods or Nicklaus. He’s not interested in that defining him.
“Rory,’’ Gerry McIlroy said, “is happy just being Rory.’’
Still, though, the comparisons between Woods and McIlroy are inevitable. And they have intensified since McIlroy staved off the scorching 62 Woods shot in the final round at Honda to win on Sunday.
Dating back to the days of Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, golf has always pined for rivalries. For years, we’ve been begging for a Phil Mickelson-Woods rivalry and have gotten little tastes along the way, such as Mickelson’s Pebble Beach beatdown of Woods last month.
“I don’t see myself as anyone’s rival out here,’’ McIlroy said. “I’m going to let other people make the comparisons. I’ve never said that I want to be the next anyone. I just want to be the first Rory McIlroy. It’s never like I set out to win 18 majors like Tiger has.”
* Mickelson arrived to Doral yesterday after having played a practice round at Augusta with Keegan Bradley and Dustin Johnson on Tuesday and he delivered a playful tweak of Woods when asked about his reaction to Woods’ final-round 62 last Sunday.
“Yeah, obviously he was paying attention a couple of weeks ago, which is nice to see,’’ Mickelson said. “It is good to see him back and playing well.’’
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com
Rory McIlroy, McIlroy, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Gerry McIlroy, Maria Sharapova, Jack Nicklaus, Caroline Wozniacki, Doral Resort and Spa, DORAL, Fla.
No comments:
Post a Comment