Tiger Woods hails Rory McIlory as the new face of golf
World number one Rory McIlory is enjoying his stay at the summit, as he keeps receiving praises from all walks of life including the former blazing guns of the sport.
Former world number one Tiger Woods came out with his support and praise for the young Ulsterman ahead of the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral and said that his claim of the summit was a well deserved one.
Woods said, “Rory has fantastic talent. He made a few makes on Sunday, but he recovered every time. You’re not going to play perfectly all the time – some people don’t realize that. You’re going to make mistakes, which he did, and that’s fine”.
Woods might have been referring to himself unconsciously when he stated that everyone makes mistakes.
Nonetheless, that all is fine as long as the person is willing to undo what he has done and would undertake a new beginning.
He has not won a title for the last more than two years and although he landed the Chevron World Challenge title in the closing session last year, it is not considered as a mainstream PGA Tour victory.
The 14-major-winner surged to the top of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) for the first time on June 15, 1997, marking the youngest player in history to reach the summit.
McIlroy is now the second youngest sportsman behind Woods to win the accolade.
Woods remained on the summit for a consecutive eye-popping 623 weeks before he was finally dethroned from the summit by Lee Westwood in 2010.
McIlroy’s current status as the new world number one remains a bit shaky as the approaching contenders, Luke Donald and Westwood, are hoping to reclaim the title ahead of the first major event of the year.
Woods added, “Now he’s got to continue to improve, because everyone else is. Everyone else is out here working hard to become a better golfer, and a more consistent player. But Rory didn’t get where he is by not practising. So he’s just got to keep doing what he’s been doing”.
McIlroy played brilliantly right from the start of the current year. He managed to remain in contention for several of the events both on Middle Eastern turf as well as in South Africa and finally landed his first title of the year, The Honda Classic on PGA National last week.
The young Irishman has made a comeback to the PGA Tour, playing as a full member of the tour this year.
He is hoping to continue his blistering form right till the end of the year and emulate the feat of Donald and win the Money List on both sides of the Atlantic.
He is also the first Northern Irishman to surge to the summit of OWGR in the history.
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