Rory McIlroy and rivals
The idea of rivalries in golf is one of the most trumped-up notions the game has seen. As Rory McIlroy, the new world number one player - another contrived notion that players aren't all that concerned about - said this week, "I think it's more the media that build up the rivalries more than anyone else."
As for the world ranking, here's Luke Donald on the matter. McIlroy deposed the poor fellow's 40-week run there when he won the Honda Classic in Sunday.
"Well, I think it adds a little bit of interest," Donald said. "I'm not sure that the players are quite as concerned with it as maybe you guys or the fans, at least."
As for "anyone else," McIlroy meant the golfers themselves. They don't get hot and bothered about rivalries. Check out their replies to questions about the subject. They're visibly uneasy, because they don't think about it that much. McIlroy said that golfers play the course, not each other. They have to beat the course. It's not as if they're out there punching in a boxing ring, or going at one another in a tennis final.
Novak Djokovic can influence Rafael Nadal by the way he plays. That's tennis. Tennis players are playing the same ball, so the quality of Djokovic's serve, say, will influence Nadal's return. There's no analogous situation in golf. Not a one.
Sure, there's a feeling of going up against an individual down the stretch of a tournament, especially when the contending players are in the same group. But other than that, forget about it. A "rivalry" is a trumped-up notion, which isn't to say that Tiger Woods, for one, doesn't get revved up about beating, oh, Phil Mickelson in a head-on stretch run. Or vice-versa.
Think about it. Were Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer rivals? There was nothing one could do to the other in the last stages of a tournament, except make birdies. Were Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, and Byron Nelson rivals? Of course not. You can't be a rival to another golfer. You can only post the lowest score and win a tournament or tournaments, and establish yourself in the game. Just because McIlroy is the new top-ranked golfer doesn't mean he's the best golfer in the world. Just two weeks ago there was a feeling maybe he didn't have what it takes to even get to number one, when Hunter Mahan beat him in the final round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
McIlroy is a phenomenal young golfer, that's for sure. He utterly dominated last year's U.S. Open, which he won by eight shots. Nobody seemed in the same tournament, reminiscent of when Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by a nose-bleeding 15 shots. He was in rare air. And now McIlroy is number one and people are all a-flutter about the supposed rivalry that might ensure between him and Tiger. Let's get real. It would be wonderful to see the two of them going up against each other down the stretch Sunday in this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral's Blue Monster in Miami. But all each will be able to do is beat the course and post as low a number as possible.
That's why McIlroy has said, repeatedly, that he's not concerned about being the next "Tiger" or the next anybody. The notion is absurd. You could argue that it's meant to be figurative or metaphorical. But it's not meant that way.
The subject was absurd when it was raised after McIlroy won the U.S. Open last June and it's just as ridiculous now. Woods has won 14 majors in his total of 71 PGA Tour victories. McIlroy is 14 years younger than he is, and he's won three PGA Tour events, including that U.S. Open. I hope he'll win many tournaments and many majors. He's bringing a lot of excitement to the game, and I don't want to diminish the interest and buzz he generated on Sunday at the Honda Classic when he did exactly what he had to do coming in after Woods shot his 62 an hour before McIlroy was done.
But a rivalry? Uh-uh.
Here's what McIlroy said about the idea on Tuesday at Doral.
"Ultimately you're going to have to beat people coming down the stretch on Sundays, and whether it's Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or Lee Westwood or Luke Donald or Martin Kaymer or whoever; you know, I would never really want to say that I'm in a rivalry with someone. I just want to go out there and play good golf and solid golf. And if I can do that, then people can make the rivalries up themselves. If people want to say there's a rivalry, so be it, but I don't see myself as anyone's rival out here. I just see myself as Rory McIlroy and going out there and trying to play good golf and winning tournaments at the end of the day."
But bring it on. Bring on McIlroy, Mickelson and Woods starting the final round at Doral tied for the lead. Bring them on at next month's Masters in the same situation. The golf world will go crazy. People who don't know a chip shot from a snap hook will snap to attention and watch. But they won't be watching a rivalry. They'll be watching three of the best golfers in the world trying to post the lowest score they can. That's enough for me, because it's reality, not invented.
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Lorne Rubenstein has written a golf column for The Globe and Mail since 1980. He has played golf since the early 1960s and was the Royal Canadian Golf Association's first curator of its museum and library at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario and the first editor of Score, Canada's Golf Magazine, where he continues to write a column and features. He has won four first-place awards from the Golf Writers Association of America, one National Magazine Award in Canada, and he won the award for the best feature in 2009 from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. Lorne has written 12 books, including Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters (2003); A Disorderly Compendium of Golf, with Jeff Neuman (2006); This Round's on Me (2009); and the latest Moe & Me: Encounters with Moe Norman, Golf's Mysterious Genius (2012). He is a member of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Lorne can be reached at rube@sympatico.ca . You can now follow him on Twitter @lornerubenstein