As a winner of 42 golf tournaments and three major championships, it can be argued that Rory McIlory is the greatest player of modern golf. Mcilory grew up in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland as an only child of Rosie Mcdonald and Gerry McIlroy. McIlory was introduced to golf by his father at a very young age and joined the Holywood Golf Club, becoming the youngest member at the age of 7. His parents had to work extra hard to provide for McIlroy’s expensive golfing development, especially since he started his training with golf professional and teacher Michael Bannon who would amazingly go on to be McIlory’s mentor for his whole life.
When he was 15, McIlory’s golfing talent was becoming more prominent, gaining him a spot on the Irish team in the European Boys team championship and on Europe’s winning 2004 Junior Ryder Cup team against the US in Ohio. In the same year, he signed a letter of intent to play collegiate golf at East Tennessee State University but decided to forgo it to pursue his amateur golf career. After winning many amateur tournaments and setting several course records, McIlroy made his first appearance in a professional tournament at the age of 17 at the Dubai Desert Classic, but he officially turned pro on Sep. 18, 2007, at the Quinn Direct British Masters shooting a +2 and finishing at 42nd place. The same year McIlroy became the youngest Affiliate Member in the history of the European Tour to earn a tour card (a “driver’s license” for pro golf), earning 277,255 euros, and finishing 95th place on the Order of Merit list. He won his first major championship during the 2011 U.S. Open and became the best male golfer in the world for the first time on March 4, 2012. McIlroy would continue to obtain multiple PGA Championships and Open Championships over the next several years. On April 22, 2017, McIlroy married Erica Stroll and three years later, McIlroy and Stoll became parents to daughter Poppy. McIlroy is still currently playing professional golf and will continue to etch his name into the list of the best athletes ever.
