Rory McIlroy: A Family Destiny Fulfilled

This Chronicles Unseen long-form article can be viewed in full on the oneclub.golf website. Enjoy a teaser below.

When Rory McIlroy made an appearance on Northern Irish television at the age of nine, it was clear he was a special talent. Yet few people, perhaps with the exception of Gerry, Rory’s father, and a few of his friends, could have imagined that the youngster would one day become an Open Champion.

Through support from his family, and parents who toiled to help their son achieve his dreams, McIlroy has established himself as one of the best golfers in modern history and one of the most popular recent winners of the Claret Jug.

Born in Northern Ireland in 1989, it only took Rory McIlroy two years of life to fall in love with the game of golf. Rory’s father Gerry was an accomplished player, and McIlroy Jr. caught the golf bug quickly.

“I just looked like a kid that loved golf,” McIlroy said of his early years. “I just really had a passion for the game. Swinging the golf club in the front room every day or chipping balls into the washing machine, I just loved the game.

“I was always fixated with it for a very long time from a very young age and it all started as my dad’s whole side of the family were golfers and we grew up very close to the golf course. My dad was a good amateur player, a scratch golfer, so it just all stemmed from there.”

McIlroy never felt forced to play golf, developing a natural love for the game and a desire to play as often as possible, one so often nurtured through adolescence.

“I was never pushed into it in any way,” McIlroy said. “If anything it was the other way around. I had to drag my dad out to the golf course so I was never pushed into playing golf. It was always my ambition, my dream, I had to drag my dad out to the golf course to play so it was pure, pure joy and pure passion for me.”

Playing whenever he could, the Northern Irishman rapidly made the ascent to young superstar, following in the footsteps of his idol Tiger Woods at the age of nine when he appeared on a television talk show in his home country. On the show McIlroy chipped balls into a washing machine, much like his practiced at his own home.

Whilst appearing on television raised the profile of a young McIlroy, the dedication and love he showed in playing the game, alongside one of the greatest talents for golf in recent memory, was all part of a larger plan, and dream.

“I think dreams and goals and setting targets for yourself,” McIlroy said, “I think that’s the most important thing not just for kids but for anyone in life, for anyone that wants to achieve something. You can’t achieve anything by not setting goals or not setting targets or dreaming big.

“I’m a big preacher of dreams, and I was this little kid from Holywood, County Down, a town of 12,000 people. My parents were two very working-class people and you know I’ve got to this point in my life just because I believed in myself and I had people around me that believed in me.”