The ‘Rory’ing 20’s

In a week where Tiger Woods non-Augusta bubblicious return to the Tour was the headline, by tournaments end a new young up-and-coming sensation was all anyone could talk about. Since his rousing entrance as a pro and his 2009 win in Dubai, there has been a tremendous amount pressure on 20 year old Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy to not only contend in ‘The States,” but win. And who would have ever thought that after a mediocre first 36 in the Quail Hollow Championship, McIlroy would end up stealing the show.

Tiger Woods was the talk of Charlotte Thursday morning, but was unable to back anything up as he fired a very pedestrian two-over-par 74. He slept on a nine shot deficit after Bo Van Pelt’s amazing opening 65, but still few were skeptical about his chances of contending. And then he hit the back nine on Friday and something went insanely wrong. After turning in one over 37, Woods dug himself a deeper hole with two bogies on the first three holes on the back nine, and was sitting at +5. After putting disasters on the easy 14th and 15th leading to back to back doubles, he had only 3 holes to play and was all of a sudden +9. He finished with a 43 on the back and missed the cut by a whopping 8 strokes. This performance marked only the 6th time in Tiger’s professional career that he missed a cut, which in itself is astounding.

With the Tiger exit it put World #2 Phil Mickelson in the driver seat as he sat fully in contention entering the weekend. And as the sun went down Saturday he was tied for second with Davis Love III only two shots off the pace of tour veteran Billy Mafair’s lead at nine-under-par. There were a lot of other contenders still in the mix entering the final round with guys like Van Pelt and JJ Henry along with global stars Angel Cabrera, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim and red hot Rory McIlroy. Rory’s Saturday 66 brought him from on the cut line all the way to the top 10 and oddly enough into contention. But his Sunday, was stuff of legends.

He got out pretty fast on the outward nine posting four birdies on his way to carding a masterful 32 and jumping further into the mix as Mayfair and Love struggled. But no one had any idea that this jaw dropping 32 was just a warm-up act for McIlroy’s inward nine. Although posting level on the par five 10th, he picked up two birdies on the first five back nine holes to take a one shot lead on the par five 15th tee. After a crushing a 352-yard drive McIlroy pounded a five-iron up the hill 206 yards nestling up three feet from the cup. This eagle catapulted him to the lead and although he drove it into the trap on 16, responded with a nine-iron chop out to six feet and another birdie moving him to five-under on the back nine and 14-under for the tournament. But his act still wasn’t done quite yet.

After nearly holing a 50-foot putt on the intimidating par three 17th, he stepped to the 18th tee with a very comfortable lead, considering the difficulty of the 18th. After finding the fairway with his drive McIlroy did as his caddy would want and stay away from the creek on the pin side and hit a conservative iron to the middle of the green to 45 feet from the cup. Cue his victory walk up the hill. After an amazing greeting from the Charlotte faithful and a tapestry of superlatives from my hommie Jim Nantz he lined up a birdie putt that would give him a back nine 30 and break the course record by two shot. As he struck the putt up the hill it started to curl left toward the cup and had perfect pace as it turned in the last three feet and disappeared into a backdrop of a roaring gallery. This putt gave McIlroy a course record 62, a four shot win over Mickelson and his first career professional win in the US despite making the cut on the number on Friday afternoon. What a week!

Amidst the excitement of Tiger and the contention of Phil, one of the most electric young players in the world made his mark. On the same day that 18 year old sensation Ryo Ishikawa fired a blistering 58 on the Japanese Tour in route to victory, the soon to be 21 year old (Tuesday is his birthday) would take that big leap in the big boys Tour. As if there it was in question anyway, he will take his Masters invite for 2011 and will move forward this week to Tour’s 5th Major The Players Championship. I’m sure he may sneak in a quick couple of shots at a pub in Ponte Vedre Beach. One for his birthday and one for his big victory.