Well after only 2 weeks where Rory had a chance to climb to the top of Golf's world rankings, he has managed it with a win in the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Florida.
Despite arguably the best year of any golfer last year, Donald was surpassed by the 22 year old after falling early in the Matchplay and missing the tournament in Florida the following week.
As a sports fan it is difficult not to feel sorry for Donald who was overtaken, mainly due to not playing this week. He didn't have an opportunity to protect his ranking (although could have played, but chose not to) and we were denied the chance of seeing the two players battle in the same tournament for top spot. When Donald took the no 1 ranking - he passed Lee Westwood by beating him in a playoff at the PGA Championship in Wentworth. This was a fantastic spectacle, and one which the dominance of Tiger Woods had robbed us of for so long.
However Rory has now reached the top and I for one think he is there to stay for a while.
Recent holders of the No 1 in the PT era (Post Tiger) have included Westwood, Kaymer, Donald and now McIlroy. While all of these players are capable of being No 1 again, I think they will have a job wrestling it from Rory. Leaving Kaymer aside briefly - we will focus on Westwood & Donald.
These guys have both achieved the No 1 ranking over a decade into their careers. While they certainly deserved it when they held it, they couldn't dominate the way other No 1's have - noteably Norman and Woods. They are both excellent tour players and have won a lot of tournaments, but they have both had peaks & troughs in their careers and didn't fully peak until in their 30s. They have also both not win a Major. I tend to put that down a quirk of fate - they have won plenty of other tournaments in other weeks with top quality fields and it is just unfortunate they haven't put 4 good rounds together in the correct 4 weeks of the year. So while these guys (and others like them, Poulter, Casey, Garcia, Harrington) may reach No 1 - it seems likely they will only be there for a few months.
Briefly on Kaymer... he nipped ahead of Westwood in the early part of last year but has had a stop start time since then. At times he seems brilliant and unbeatable, but he has clearly not sustained that. He does have the potential (and the game) to dominate for a long period of time but he seems to tinker too often with his swing. He won a major and held the World No 1 spot, but has talked of changing his swing and other nuances of his game in a strive for perfection. Perhaps he really will improve, but more than likely he is too much of a perfectionist and will find & lose form like most tour players tend to do over a 10 or 15 year career.
So onto McIlroy. Why is he set to dominate? Well 1st off, his age. At 22, he is the 2nd youngest No 1 (after Woods obviously).
He has also reached the World No 1 spot with a sustained climb up the rankings. Since turning pro in September 2007 he has improved his ranking each year. While clearly there have been dips in his form, any 12 month period has always been better than the previous. It seems likely he can continue to improve for the next 5 to 10 years, which is a frightening prospect when you consider how complete his game is now.
Thirdly - he has already won a major. Unlike Donald and Westwood, this monkey is off his back. Both the Englishmen had to turn up at every major when they were World No 1 (or 2) and say 'yes, this is the one I will win!'. However they'd both had 40 or 50 attempts. McIlroy got his at the 10th attempt when he won the US Open.
I have to admit I was a bit sceptacle about Rory when he was being talked up, especially during the Ryder Cup in 2010. Clearly the fans loved him and he had a very complete game, however at that stage he'd only won 2 tournaments (Dubai Desert Classic '09 & Quail Hollow '10) and had quite a few near misses. He seemed to be unable to convert good positions into wins as often as some of his peers.
However, I don't think that remains an issue. He bounced back from a horriffic back 9 at the Masters last year, to blow the field away at the US Open. He also won in Hong Kong in December and then held his nerve terrifically when under a bit of pressure in Florida to take the top ranking.
The back 9 he played in Palm Beach was mainly what prompted me to write this. Woods was in the Clubhouse after a scintillating 63 and all the questions were being asked of Rory. Could he win to take the No 1 spot? Well he answered them empatically. Despite not playing his best golf and missing a lot of greens, Rory made save after save to keep his 2 shot lead and take the tournament. His pitching & putting from greenside rough and bunkers was faultless. Despite the Par 5 18th being a clear scoring opportunity - Rory could lay up safely, play a wedge to the centre of the green and 2 putt, with his 2 shot lead intact. In short, Rory gruond out a win despite playing poorly which is the main reason Tiger dominated for so long. He would go week after week, just doing enough to win no matter what kind of form he was in.
I guess it is unlikely that Rory will dominate like Tiger, but who knows? He will certainly have a long number of weeks at No 1 over the next 10 years and collect a lot of wins and probably a few more majors. The Masters kicks off in 4 short weeks and I guess Mr McIlroy will be favourite.
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