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Is Rory's Career Disappointing?

JB

JB

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Before some go crazy, hear me out. First, this is only even a though based on the incredibly high bar he created for himself. Second, his career is certainly not over and he could turn it around any week and breakthrough in any major.

With that said a look at the last few years offers this.

Only a single victory on the PGA Tour since the beginning of 2017.
His last major victory was 2014
His last stretch at #1 in the world was 2015

He created this "Next Big Thing" with huge success early on. Is he a victim of it, and anything less is disappointing?
 
I'm just not sure his interest in the game would accommodate such a significant presence. He's one of the best players in the game off the tee, and it slowly deteriorates from there.

Maybe I'm wrong.
 
His career is disappointing as Tiger’s career is disappointing.

Rory is still good enough for the HOF though if he didn’t win another tournament
 
Rory is only an average putter on Tour and has been a poor closer the last few years, if not his entire career. He is one of the best ball strikers ever but with average putting, he will never dominate like a Tiger or Jack on today’s tour, even if he is a maybe a better striker of the ball than either of them.
 
tahoebum said:
Rory is only an average putter on Tour and has been a poor closer the last few years, if not his entire career. He is one of the best ball strikers ever but with average putting, he will never dominate like a Tiger or Jack on today’s tour, even if he is a maybe a better striker of the ball than either of them.
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I'd love to know genuinely how much time he invests into getting better at the game. He's got nearly 50 million in winnings, and an endless supply of cash from Nike. When you're a great player, but you look at the record books and see some of the impossible to break records staring back, maybe he just got to a point and shrugged. Cruise control activated.
 
I wouldn’t say it’s disappointing because of the wins he has in the trophy case right now.

I do think complacency has set it with his off course money. I’m sure the dude wants to win as much as the next guy, but just don’t get the sense he’s spending hours practicing trying to clean up the irons and fixing the putting.

I know he recently worked with Brad Faxon and his putting has improved, but he’s let some wins get away recently.

I curious to listen to his podcast with Carson Daly to see if we get some insight into his mindset.
 
I'd say if he quit right now, it would be disappointing. But like you said, only because of how high he set the bar so quickly in his career, and what everyone was touting of him. He did succeed and meet expectations early on, which I think only fuels the discussion. I think he does continue to be a very very good golfer, and continue to hover around the top 10 in the world most of his career. However with the expectations of essentially being the next Jack or Tiger though, and how almost plausible that at first seemed, his career may disappoint. I feel like he will ultimately end up being more of a Gary Player than a Jack or Tiger, which is still incredibly good...just always going to be a "what could have been" like we find ourselves saying each tournament he comes close in because of that putting game.
 
I wouldn't necessarily say his entire body of work is disappointing though I think his ability to close on Sundays during the past couple of seasons has been disappointing.
 
I think it depends on how he finishes but he still has had a HOF career

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I think it is a bit. After the way he came on to the scene we all thought he was the next Tiger. But the truth is there will never be another Tiger. He has loads of talent, is likeable but rarely seems to put it all together anymore, basically like everyone else on tour
 
Canadan said:
I'd love to know genuinely how much time he invests into getting better at the game. He's got nearly 50 million in winnings, and an endless supply of cash from Nike. When you're a great player, but you look at the record books and see some of the impossible to break records staring back, maybe he just got to a point and shrugged. Cruise control activated.
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I’d love to know as well. No doubt the money that Tiger brought to the game of golf has changed the motivations for many a PGA Tour player since 2000. Snead won just a million dollars in prize money over his entire career with his 87 wins and his sponsorship money wasn’t much more than that. I totally get why it would be easy to put it in cruise control when making $5M plus annually for winning one or less tournaments each year.
 
tahoebum said:
I’d love to know as well. No doubt the money that Tiger brought to the game of golf has changed the motivations for many a PGA Tour player since 2000. Snead won just a million dollars in prize money over his entire career with his 87 wins and his sponsorship money wasn’t much more than that. I totally get why it would be easy to put it in cruise control when making $5M plus annually for winning one or less tournaments each year.
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I can tell you that my motivations after winning that many millions on the tour would be far more about enjoying life than grinding out wins, but I know many of these guys have a totally different mindset.
 
If you put up his career down on paper (wins, top 10s, majors etc) and didn't know the name of the player, you would say he has had a hell of a career. If you told me it was Rory McIlroy I would say wow, that is all he did?

His talent is among the greatest I have seen in my life (vintage tiger was by far the best, didn't see vintage Jack) but the way he has finished many tournaments, including a couple chances already at the masters for a career grand slam tells me that yes, his career is a disappointment.

Since he won his last major 2 other guys have won 3 (Spieth and Koepka) and could very likely match his 4 sometime in 2019. I hope that he, Day, Spieth, DJ, Tiger and some of the other young guns all play well at some tournaments this year... that would be so much fun for all of us to watch.
 
His career is not disappointing yet I am disappointed in his career.

Promise was realized, promise then took a timeout. He's still one of the most physically gifted golfers in the world and those gifts paid mighty returns early but not as of late.

What he's accomplished makes for a solid career. What he still may accomplish can make for one that is great. If frozen now, it once exhibited but then only teased greatness.
 
His career is not disappointing IMO.

There's no denying his pace has slowed down these last 3 years, but you just can't take away what he's accomplished prior to that. How many massively talented guys on Tour would KILL for 4 Majors in an entire career?

When guys like Rory and Spieth go on a ridiculous hot streak for a 1-2 year period it's just not accurate or fair to project that forward at all. For anyone not named Tiger Woods it's simply not sustainable.
 
ArmyGolf said:
His career is not disappointing IMO.

There's no denying his pace has slowed down these last 3 years, but you just can't take away what he's accomplished prior to that. How many massively talented guys on Tour would KILL for 4 Majors in an entire career?

When guys like Rory and Spieth go on a ridiculous hot streak for a 1-2 year period it's just not accurate or fair to project that forward at all. For anyone not named Tiger Woods it's simply not sustainable.
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While I agree, he’s been in position to close out some tournaments and hasn’t

From Twitter I read the following:
He has played in the final group nine times over the past 15 months, and each time he’s watched someone else hoist the trophy.

That’s not disappointing, but I expect him to close out a few of those with his talent
 
I'm not disappointed in Rory's career, nor am I disappointed in Rory. I still love to watch him play, and I'm constantly rooting for him. Everyone goes through lulls now and again, and maybe this is one. I am fully confident he'll figure it out sooner than later.

He's been in the hunt, but it seems like he has some trouble closing. I feel the same way about Rickie. Rickie is slowly working out the kinks, and I've got high hopes for him. I'm sure Rory can do the same. It's just a matter of connecting the dots.

There is a lot of talk about Rory not having passion for the game, but if you look at him when he's playing well, I don't buy it. It's so much fun to see him get super excited after draining a big putt. You just get this sense that he's a giddy kid who wants to win. He'll come around.
 
Don't get me wrong it's been a heck of a career. That's the career that millions of golfers dream of. But with Rory it seems different because he is one of the most talented golfers ever and that makes it a little disappointing to me. It feels like he has his mind in other places, which I don't fault him for at all, but it's a bummer for us because I think we could see big things from him.
 
mikeg_74 said:
While I agree, he’s been in position to close out some tournaments and hasn’t

From Twitter I read the following:
He has played in the final group nine times over the past 15 months, and each time he’s watched someone else hoist the trophy.

That’s not disappointing, but I expect him to close out a few of those with his talent
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I agree that his inability to close lately is a little worrisome, but I'm confident as a super fan that he'll get the killer instinct again lol. Somewhere in there is the Rory who looked like a freaking surgeon with a wedge in hand at Kiawah Island.
 
If Rory's career is disappointing, then sign me up for a disappointing career!

OITW said:
His career is disappointing as Tiger’s career is disappointing.

Rory is still good enough for the HOF though if he didn’t win another tournament
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To even compare Rory's career to. Tiger's career is laughable.

You'll notice, I inserted a period up there where it normally wouldn't be appropriate. That's because comparing those two careers in the same sentence is inappropriate in and of itself.
 
I'm disappointed in his wedge game. It feels to me like that has let him down in the past year more than anything.
 
No more so than Jason Day, or The last 24 months of Spieth. I think all these guys get hot, get super hyped, and then they are looked at in terms of unfulfilled promise, when in reality they face some amazingly stiff competition every week.
 
I would say yes, I've also heard people say he already has a hall of fame career, interesting to see such polar opposites of takes on him.
 
True, he hasn't closed as of late. But he is still rolling in bank with the finishes he has had. so many get close..the competition is just getting better every week.
 
I was not aware that his career had finished.

This week he failed to finish in the top 5 for the first time in a while, so yes he is disappointed. Since his back to back Major wins, a number of players have hit the top, Speith, Koepka, Thomas and a resurgent Johnson have made it more difficult. All players have dips in form, ask Jack and Tiger, so let us see where he goes next. Luke Donald and Lee Westwood were consistent top three finishers who never won a Major, Rory has more peaks and throughs, and will win more Majors.

BTW he is 30 in May, so I'm not sure what the next ten years will bring.
 
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