Rory's Glory (14 page)

Although their parting was made official in early September 2013, it was speculated upon for months in advance. The official statement from Horizon Sports Management came under banner newspaper headlines such as this:

‘RORY MCILROY SPLIT WITH HORIZON LIKELY TO SPARK LEGAL BATTLE'

Their statement read as follows:

Since October 2011, Horizon has achieved exceptional results for Rory in realising his commercial objectives. Under Horizon's management, Rory has signed some of the most lucrative endorsements in sports history. The current contract has a number of years to run. Rory's decision to seek a termination of the management contract with Horizon is now regrettably in the hands of legal advisors.

Rory was now in a new management structure set up by his father Gerry. It was named, ‘Rory McIlroy Incorporated' (RMI) with Donal Casey its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He was an actuary by profession but had many years experience as a CEO.

Barry Funston, a business leader and long time friend of the McIlroy family would head up the ‘Rory Foundation for Charity'. Both he and Gerry would also serve on the RMI Board.

Many may have seen this as a bit haphazard and very perilous. But it was becoming part of a modern trend. Australian golfer Adam Scott had set up his own management company headed by his father Phil, and in 2014 Graeme McDowell would leave Horizon.

However, Rory's new set up and strong family influences might have seemed all very stable, secure and comfortable to him on the outside. But underneath, the threat of legal action can have a very unsettling affect.

That is particularly so if it drags on and is not resolved. There were stories that both sides were content to go all the way to the High Court in Dublin and that the case would be scheduled for November 2014.

A second monster plaguing Rory was the question of who he would represent in the 2016 Brazil Olympics – Team GB or Ireland. This issue really stressed Rory and we had no idea how much until Graeme McDowell lifted the lid on the matter some time later.

Rory said consistently that he had not made a decision and would not make one until nearer the 2016 Olympics. With all the constant press speculation mounting, in September 2012 Rory said:

Whatever I do, I know my decision is going to upset some people but I just hope the best majority will understand. What makes it such an awful position to be in is that I've grown up my whole life playing for the Golfing Union of Ireland. But the fact is I've always felt more British than Irish. Maybe it's the way I was brought up, I don't know. But I've always felt more of a connection with the UK than with Ireland. And so I have to weigh that up with having played for Ireland so it is tough.

All sorts of people from sports stars to televison stars had an opinion on the matter. Even Rory's ex girlfriend Holly Sweeney weighed in with: ‘He always made it clear to me [that he was British]'.

Rory made another statement on 10 September 2012 which read:

I am a proud product of Irish golf. I'm also a proud Ulsterman who grew up in Northern Ireland. I've absolutely not made a decision regarding my participation in the Olympics.

So I decided to try to do something about all of this. I could see even more pitfalls ahead for Rory. Unknownst to himself, he could have been digging even bigger holes to fall into.

For instance, one thing that was not discussed and taken into greater consideration by Rory – or the media – was the feelings of golfers probably more deserving of a Team GB Olympic spot.

Those that have represented England, Scotland and Wales over the years in World Cups. What were their feelings on this, and could friendships with Rory be put in jeopardy as a result of Rory, in some people's eyes, getting a little too far ahead of himself?

What were the feelings of Paul Lawrie; Paul Casey; Lee Westwood; Ian Poulter; Luke Donald; Ross Fisher; Stephen Gallacher; Martin Laird and Jamie Donaldson as well as many other potential candidates for just a few Olympic spots?

After all, there is a well known photo of Rory and Graeme McDowell attired in smart suits walking behind the Irish Tricolor at a World Cup. Rory actually represented Ireland several times at this event.

That is not to mention the scores of times he represented Ireland and the GUI at Boys and Youths Internationals as well as Home Internationals over the years. So some of the top British golfers might start to question how, all of a sudden, could he represent Team GB?

On the weekend of 5 October, I contacted Pat Hickey of the Olympic Council of Ireland. I asked him if he felt Rory McIlroy, who has walked behind the Tricolor at past World Cups, could perhaps be Ireland's flagbearer in Rio, 2016. Pat replied emphatically:

Absolutely. I'll put it to you this way: If Rory McIlroy declares for Ireland, then he will automatically put himself in pole position to carry the Irish flag in Rio for the 2016 Brazil Olympics.

Then I talked with Adam Sills in London. Adam is Sports Editor of The Telegraph. He liked the idea as a major story and so, on Tuesday 9 October 2012, it appeared in their sports supplement as well as on the front page of the Irish Independent.

Many of the world's top sports have carried their country's flags at the opening ceremony of an Olympics. People like Roger Federer (Switzerland) and Maria Sharapova (Russia's first female flagbearer) to name but a few.

I knew that when the story broke, Rory would get to hear about it. When he did, he would have food for thought. It could also be something that might just stir or awaken ‘real' patriotic tendencies.

Quite aside from the choice he was referring to in the media, to be made before Rio 2016, this was an altogether more relaxed choice. On the one hand you had a loaded explosive choice and on the other you had a potentially nice, thrilling one to mull over.

The flag choice basically boiled down to this:

(i)   Do I declare for Ireland with whom I've played and have the chance to carry the Tricolor in Rio?

(ii)  Do I declare for Team GB for whom I've never played and with very little chance of ever carrying the Union Jack?

While Rory mulled over that, Graeme McDowell had a new partner for Ireland at the 2013 World Cup of Golf in Melbourne, Australia. Rory withdrew because of all the furore.

Despite the fact that he had walked with McDowell directly behind a Tricolor in the 2009 and 2011 World Cups, he felt that representing Ireland this time would only compromise his position of consistently saying that he would not made a decision until nearer to Rio.

Graeme McDowell remained hopeful that McIlroy would join him in Australia.

I need my partner in crime in Melbourne and regardless whether Rory wants to play or not, I want to play this year. If it works, I'd like him to be there, as well. But we'll see.

As referred to earlier, G-Mac would later make a heartfelt plea to Olympic authorites. He stated that after talking with Rory at length about the matter, Rory was worried and stressed out over the whole saga.

He therefore asked that the decision be made for him. Europe's 2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley weighed in on the argument. He agreed with McDowell. He also suggested that there was a strong possibility Rory would not go to the Olympics.

McGinley said:

All I can say is that unless something is done, I really don't think Rory will play in the Olympics which would be a shame – not just for the world of golf but for the Olympics as well.

He continued:

I'm one of those people who doesn't think sport and politics mix and we can all see that Rory has a real problem here. I agree with Graeme McDowell who said that someone from the International Olympic Committee or a similar body should come forward and make the decision for him. As things stand, Rory is being asked to offend someone and that's not right. He is not that sort of guy. He shouldn't be placed in that situation.

This is a flavour of how I dealt with this controversial topic in the last book in 2011:

By far and away the biggest controversy of his career so far, is one that is set to be continually played out for many decades to come. It is the question of his, shall we say, ‘patriotic allegiance'.

Renowned golf journalist Charlie Mulqueen of Irish newspaper, The Examiner gives the intro to it:

There have been times when I wished Rory McIlroy had taken time to formulate an answer before expressing a view on anything that might be regarded as controversial. The remark, for instance, that he ‘looked forward to being a member of Team UK' after it was announced that golf would be part of the Olympic Games rankled with many – and not just those with nationalistic leanings or the members of the GUI who had helped him along the way in his amateur days.

In The Telegraph of 29 September 2009, Mark Reason tried to make sense of it all as he explained and elaborated:

If you are McIlroy or Tommy Bowe and golf and rugby union are accepted into the 2016 Olympics at next week's vote of the International Olympic Committee, do you represent Great Britain or Ireland?

McIlroy told Telegraph Sport:

I'd probably play for Great Britain. I have a British passport. It's a bit of an awkward question still. It would be huge to play in an Olympics. I'd love to get an Olympic gold medal one day.

It is strange that golf and rugby should be up for inclusion at the same time because these are the sports that have historically unified Ireland. Ulster's rugby team come under the governance of the Irish Rugby Football Union and players from the north and the south turn out for one Ireland team. Golfers do the same. Formed in 1891 the Golfing Union of Ireland is the oldest golf union in the world and the presidency rotates between the four provinces. It does not matter if you hit your wedges in Ulster or Munster, you play amateur golf for Ireland.

Professional golf also recognises one Ireland. At November's World Cup in China there will not be a team from Northern Ireland and a team from the Republic, there will just be a team from Ireland. This year (2011) McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, both Ulster lads, will play for Ireland. Last year it was Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley, who is from the south. On many previous occasions it has been McGinley and Padraig Harrington.

McDowell said after the International Olympic Commitee's executive board proposed golf and rugby should be included in 2016 at a meeting last month:

It's a strange one. Golf's an all-Ireland sport. I'd play for anyone. I've never been able to explain why golf's an all-Ireland sport and rugby's an all-Ireland sport but soccer is two different teams. It'd be an honour to represent your country and I don't mind which one I play for, […] it's the biggest sporting event on the planet. I'd love to be involved in it, love to win a gold medal. It's every young man's dream, huge for golf around the world. Golf needs to go to the masses. I'm not a fan of golf being an elitist sport. Fingers crossed I get a chance to do it.

Padraig Harrington said: ‘In a country like Ireland, becoming an Olympic athlete is setting yourself apart. It is a major deal in Ireland. To be an athlete is an honour in itself.' But Harrington will not have to make a choice if golf makes it to the Olympics. McDowell and McIlroy will have to state an allegiance, like so many athletes from Northern Ireland have before them.

A few years ago, Eddie Irvine got in a quite undeserved bit of bother over what flag to hoist after he finished second in a Formula One race. Captain Peter McEvoy had a similar quandary at golf's 2001 Walker Cup. Someone had to hoist the tricolor at the opening ceremony but the two Irishmen in McEvoy's team, McDowell and Michael Hoey, were both from the north. McEvoy says:

In the end it didn't prove a problem and Michael was happy to do it as the amateur champion, but it could have been. It is strange that something like the Olympics comes along under the banner of good and we are now faced with this potential problem. It feels a bit of a retrograde step.

Peter Dawson, the chief executive of golf's governing body, the R&A, said: ‘It's a question that has yet to be resolved, but I suspect that giving the players the choice is the likely outcome.'

As it transpired further down the line, nobody was going to make the decision for Rory or take it out of his hands. Despite what Peter Dawson said, Rory would have to make that choice himself.

When Graeme McDowell flew to Australia to represent Ireland again, he made his bed. He was making a firm statement that he would be honoured to play for Ireland in Rio 2016 if he was to be selected. The same was true of his new partner Shane Lowry.

Three time major winner Padraig Harrington was not to be forgotten. He was not only still banging on the majors door and telling all and sundry that he could still win another one, he was also openly stating that he would love to play for Ireland in Brazil.

McIlroy had yet to make any decision. In fact, as Paul McGinley had said, there were now very real dangers that he would not play in the Olympics at all.

But Rory would surprise all by coming to a decision much sooner than he had envisaged.

R
ory McIlroy was enduring a torrid 2013. Both on and off the course, nothing seemed to be going right. His game was in the doldrums and it was undoubtedly the worst run of form in his professional golf career.

What made the nightmare even more excruciating – and embarrassing – was that it just so happened to coincide with his mega-million dollar deal and switch to playing with Nike golf clubs. Off the course, things were even worse.

There were threats of legal action resulting from his leaving Horizon; every week there were headlines about whether he would play for Ireland or Team GB in the 2016 Olympic Games and even in his private life, malicious rumours were abound.