By: Martin Rand, III
Date: June 19, 2011
The 2011 U.S. Open is over and Rory McIlroy has been crowned the champion. After a weekend long domination over every golfer in the tournament, McIlroy started making people reminisce about the 1997 Masters Tournament, when a 21 year old Tiger Woods won his first major with a score of 18 under par and a winning margin of 12 strokes.
Since McIlroy won his first major, at the age of 22, with a score of 16 under par and a winning margin of 8 strokes, every golf "expert" began comparing McIlroy to Tiger Woods. So, is McIlroy the next Woods?
The answer is an emphatic NO!
I understand that every sport needs superstars. It needs them for marketability purposes to the average sports consumer; and since golf's one lone superstar (Woods) hasn't won a major, or a tournament for that matter, in three years, everyone is looking for the next superstar to market to America.
The PGA Tour has chosen McIlroy to ascend to that spot and they're trying to get Woods out of the picture. Defending U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell said, "he is a legend" and "he is the best player I've ever seen." The best player you've ever seen? Umm, didn't some other player just dominate the sport for more than a decade and is probably considered the best player in golf's history; but this youngster is the best player you've ever seen?
It doesn't get any better from the golf "experts." They kept saying how he doesn't take a long time to shoot his shots (an indirect reference to Woods stare down of golf balls when putts), how he has so much respect for the game (someething many journalist have accused Woods of not having throughout his career) and how he was going to challenge Jack Nicklaus record of 18 major titles (something that Woods has been in pursuit of and legitimately the only golfer who stands a chance at breaking it at this point). Really? He just won his first title and he's already been declared as the person who's going to break a record that has stood for 25 years.
The fact is, no matter how great of a golfer McIlroy may become, he will never be the next Woods or equal Woods. Woods transcended the sport and brought a whole new demographic to the golfing world and that is something that McIlroy will not be able to do.
Woods was so marketable because he was an anomaly. He was a young black American man dominating an old white British sport. Nothing like him had ever been seen before and that is what was intriguing about him.
In the average Amercian sport consumer's eyes, there is nothing intriguing about McIlroy. He is another white European golfer who speaks with an accent. I know the PGA wants him to be the next great marketing bonanza but, like Roger Federer in tennis and Sidney Crosby in hockey, he will fall short in that area.
The PGA wants McIlroy to replace Woods. It's obvious by the lack of respect that all the veteran players have shown Woods this weekend; and the lack of respect that McIlroy has shown Woods with his post-tournament comments (he rattled off a list of great players names and said he was happy to have his name in the same company and left Woods name out).
However, McIlroy will not be the next Woods. He could become the next all-star golfer, but he will not become the superstar that replaces Woods. He won't attract any more attention to the sport outside of the real golf fans. So, if the PGA wants t.v. ratings up, they better get Woods the best doctors to help him through his injury because Americans don't care about golf; they care about Woods.
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Categories:
Martin Rand III,
Rory McIlroy,
Sports,
Tiger Woods,
U.S. Open
