Player Profile - Rory McIlroy

This week’s player profile highlights the career of 2011 US Open Champion Rory McIlroy. Born in 1989 in Northern Ireland, McIlroy’s career began at the age of two when he managed a 40 yard drive. With the support of proud parents, the highly talented young golfer carded his first hole in one at the age of nine – a definite sign of things to come.

Hard work met talent half-way for McIlroy, who honed his skills even further on the golf course as a teenager. In 2004 he represented Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup team, helping to clinch an important victory. By 2005, a sixteen year-old McIlroy played his first European Tour championship at the Forest of Arden, after winning to high-profile tournaments in his native Ireland. By 2007 when he was at the top of the World Amateur Rankings, Rory McIlroy had captured the attention of the golfing world. The 2007 season saw McIlroy win the medal for leading amateur at the Open Championship, after a bogey-free opening round. In the same year, he made his first cut at the British Masters and came third at the Alfred Dunhill Championship – his second professional event ever.

In 2008, McIlroy capitalised on his gains in experience and weathered the challenges of top-level professional golf to take part in the Volvo Masters. At the end of the season the young golfer was in the world top 100. The following season he narrowly lost the Hong Kong Open, which propelled him to the top 50. By 2009, Rory McIlroy had become a household name, as golf fans watched him closely at his first US Masters. Later that year, he won the Dubai Desert Classic and finished second on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai. In 2010 McIlroy had his first victory on the prestigious US PGA Tour when he won the Quail Hollow Championship.

On Sunday, McIlroy won his first major, the US Open. Breaking several course records, the 22-year old Northern Irishman proved to golf fans that he is a force to be reckoned with in world golf.

Golfweather Editorial