One of the
most incredible stories I have ever witnessed in the world of sports has got to
be when Tom Watson (a 59 year old man) had almost won the British Open back in
2009. Evidently he did not win The Open that year (losing to Stewart Cink) but
Watson became a man who will go down in history as one of the most resilient
people in sports.
Now I think
I have a clear idea as to what the cynics are thinking. “Golf is an old man
sport, it isn’t a big deal that he almost won” but the fact of the matter is,
that is not the point. The point is that Tom Watson was seen as a man who was
just incapable of being able to pull off a win at a major championship like the
British Open, but came closer than anyone expected him too.
After Rory
Mcilroy’s terrible (for the lack of a better word) showing on the PGA tour in
his 2013 season, many considered him a complete write off. “It was just a fluke
that he won two majors” “I knew he wasn’t going to turn out to be anything big”
is what many claimed to have already predicted. What these people didn’t know
was what Rory had next for us in store.
The same
people that claimed to know that Mcilroy would fall in one season on the PGA
tour probably also claimed to know that he was going to win on Sunday at The Open (after seeing that he shot a 66 in the first round on Thursday).
What people
often tend to forget is how things can drastically change in a matter of
seconds in the sports world. Golf is a sport where anyone can come up on top.
It’s all about how you go about playing the game, and responding to the
expectations around you.
People who
believe in karma and study the way things work in life may cling to specific explanations
as to why all of a sudden Mcilroy has got his stride back. As many people know,
Rory was in a very public relationship with professional tennis player Caroline
Woznicaki (this all because of the world of social media). When the news broke
that the two had called off their engagement and were going separate ways, Rory
had seemed to get back into the groove of his golfing career. With an 8th
place finish at this years Masters and then winning the BMW PGA championship,
Rory was getting back on track. A little coincidental don’t you think?
Going into
the British Open, Rory knew a lot was riding on his play. Winning The Open
would get him 3 quarters of the way to his career grand slam, that’s major
pressure.
People seem
to believe that when these professional golfers have pressure on them, they
don’t perform. This past weekend in Liverpool at The Open, Rory proved that
theory wrong.
The thing
to remember when it comes to sports is that the expectations are always there.
Whether they are low expectations, like the expectations of Watson back in 2009
and the high expectations like the ones of those that were placed upon Rory
this past weekend. Expectations are inevitable but the way they are handled is
what keeps everyone entertained. Rest assured, there will be more entertainment
for us in the world of golf and it’s just around the corner.
