There can be little doubt that Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is quite simply the
hottest young property in golf at the moment and a massive drawcard for this year’s
Nedbank Golf Challenge, his first visit to Sun City.
The week before the official announcement of the 2009 field, McIlroy was riding high
atop the Race to Dubai standings, the season-long measure that replaced the European
Tour’s Order of Merit, and this at the tender age of 20 years and five months.
McIlroy ‘launched’ a 30-metre drive at the age of two and there was no doubt
that his considerable talents were going to carry him far. Before he turned professional
in 2007, his handicap was a staggering plus-6 and he had announced himself on the global
stage as an amateur with an opening round of 68 in the Open Championship at Carnoustie,
the only bogey-free round of the day.
He had played in his first professional event as a 16-year old in 2005, the same year
in which he won the prestigious West of Ireland and Irish Close Championship, represented
Europe in the junior Ryder Cup and established an astonishing course record of 61 at Royal
Portrush Golf Club.
He entered the 2007 Open on top of the amateur world rankings and, if he needed any
convincing, that performance confirmed that he was ready to take the leap into
professional golf and he gained some lucrative invitations to compete early on.
In his first event as a professional, he made the cut and then finished third in his
second event, the lucrative Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews - two results
that secured him enough money to finish within the top 115 on the order of merit and
secure his playing privileges on the tour for the following year. He was the youngest, and
the quickest, player ever to secure his tour card, at the age of 18 and in just two
tournaments.
In his first full year on tour in 2008, he climbed steadily up the rankings, with his
final tournament, the SA Open at Pearl Valley delivering a tie for third place and a
year-end world ranking of 38, which earned him automatic entry into the 2009 Masters at
Augusta, his first major as a professional.
Prior to the Masters, however, he secured his breakthrough win in professional golf,
leading from start to finish at the Dubai Desert Classic and holing a clutch putt on the
final green to beat Justin Rose by a stroke and emphatically dismiss the ghosts of
Switzerland in 2008, when he had squandered a handsome lead in the final round of the
Omega European Masters and missed a four-foot putt for victory in regulation play before
losing in a playoff.
He became the sixth-youngest player to win a tournament on the European Tour and the
youngest since Sergio Garcia had made his breakthrough when six days younger than McIlroy.
Having made the cut in his first Masters, McIlroy arrived at this year’s US Open
with bundles of confidence and proceeded to secure his first top-10 finish in a major. He
followed that performance up with a tie for 47th in the Open Championship and then the
best of his four finishes in the majors, a tie for third at the PGA.
There will not be many limited field events in which McIlroy has two players in the
field – Tim Clark and Richard Sterne – shorter than him, but there will also be
few in which there are any players with more raw talent and uninhibited confidence. He has
the golfing world at his feet and a marker to put down in Africa’s Major. | 
