From baby steps to giant strides in the blink of an eye

PHILIP REID charts Rory McIlroy’s progress from Carnoustie in 2007, the brilliant start to his pro career and his rise to the…

PHILIP REIDcharts Rory McIlroy's progress from Carnoustie in 2007, the brilliant start to his pro career and his rise to the top of the world rankings

THE FIRST real baby steps that Rory McIlroy took in an upward graph up the world rankings came in the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie.

He was still an amateur, but no ordinary amateur. He’d already been ranked number one in the fledgling amateur world rankings and, at the time, was the European amateur champion.

And, after taking the silver medal at Carnoustie as top amateur in the Open championship, he moved from 1,358th up to 865th in the official world rankings. Baby steps. But the world was now watching, and – living up to his “next big thing” reputation – he wasn’t to disappoint.

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As Pádraig Harrington cradled the Claret Jug at that prize-giving ceremony, he knew more than most just how talented the curly-haired, fresh-faced teenager was and didn’t need to possess a clairvoyant’s instincts to know what the future held for the Ulsterman.

“I’d like to congratulate Rory on his fine achievement. I’m glad I got in before he wins one, (because) I’m sure he will win a few Open Championships in the future. He is a fine talent.”

We were to discover just how fine a talent as soon as McIlroy left the amateur ranks – later that same year after competing in the Walker Cup at Royal Co Down – when, within weeks of joining the professional ranks, he secured his European Tour card by association membership without the need to visit Q-school after finishing third on a sponsor’s invitation to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

If his first steps in the official world rankings were baby ones – that third-place finish in October 2007 jumped him from 880th before the Dunhill up to 308th – after it he took giants strides.

By year’s end, he was up to 232nd . . . and the upward graph, year on year, became ever more dramatic. By the end of the 2008 season, he had moved up to 39th in the world.

Then, having made his breakthrough win on the European Tour by taking the Dubai Desert Classic in February of 2009, McIlroy was to finish that season in ninth place in the world rankings. He was 20 years of age, and beat the record previously held by Sergio Garcia of being the youngest player to break into the world’s top-10.

McIlroy had entered the professional scene as a player with the potential to get to world number one.

He was special. Always had been, from the time he appeared on the Gerry Kelly television as a nine-year-old and proceeded to hit ball after ball into the tumbler of a washing machine. Performing trick shots and hitting golf shots for a living are entirely different, but McIlroy’s progression in the pro ranks was, quite simply, meteoric.

There were those who pointed a finger and wondered why he didn’t win quite as often as he might. After all, he had to wait a considerable length of time to follow up his maiden tour win in Dubai.

When it came, though, it was sensational: McIlroy shot a closing round 62 to win the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship, his maiden victory on the PGA Tour. It was a taste of even greater things to come.

In 2011, McIlroy became the hottest property in the sport with a record-breaking win in the US Open at Congressional. That his victory came in his next Major outing following his final round meltdown in the US Masters made the success all the more impressive.

McIlroy moved to number three in the world after his maiden Major victory and finished the year in some style by adding the Shanghai Masters and the Hong Kong Open to his curriculum vitae to remain as number three.

RORY McILROY: SIX STEPS TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD GAME

July 2007

If not as orchestrated as Tiger Woods’s “Hello World!” moment, which had as much to do with Nike marketing as the player himself, Rory McIlroy’s introduction to a worldwide audience came in the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie. Ranked a lowly 1,358th in the world before the event and still an amateur, McIlroy was the only player in the field to shoot a bogey-free first round and eventually finished up in 40th position in a championship won by Pádraig Harrington. McIlroy’s endeavours gave him the Silver Medal as leading amateur in the Major, and he moved to 865th in the world rankings.

October 2007

Having waved goodbye to the amateur game when representing Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup on home soil at Royal Co Down, McIlroy made a seamless move into the professional ranks. So seamless, in fact, that he claimed his PGA European Tour card within weeks when finishing third in the Dunhill Links championship. He moved up to 308th in the world rankings.

February 2009

The standard on tour is such that achieving a breakthrough win is easier said than done. In McIlroy’s case, it was a matter of when it would eventually occur. As it happened, it came in the desert. Although he slipped shots on theway home as he had a maiden tour win within his grasp, McIlroy finally got over the line when winning the Dubai Desert Classic. He jumped from 39th in the world rankings up to 16th.

December 2009

The mathematics of the official world rankings are such that players can move upwards in a week when they aren’t playing. Such was the case with McIlroy when the rankings were released on December 13th. He had moved from 11th to ninth, his first time to make it into the world’s top-10. The other significance was that, at 20, he became the youngest player to break into the top-10, eclipsing the record previously held by Sergio Garcia. He finished second behind Lee Westwood in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai that same season.

May 2011

A week before his defence of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, McIlroy achieved a personal milestone when passing out Tiger Woods in the rankings for the first time. It came in a week when neither player were in action, but the pair swapped places – McIlroy moving from seventh to sixth, and Woods from sixth to seventh – as the Ulsterman climbed to a career-high third.

June 2011

McIlroy’s record-breaking win in the US Open at Congressional (where his total of 268 broke the 72-hole scoring record previously held by Jack Nicklaus (1980), Lee Janzen (1993), Tiger Woods (2000) and Jim Furyk (2003) saw him jump to number three in the world rankings and put him into a position to close in on Westwood and Luke Donald, who alternated positions.

March 2012

McIlroy’s win yesterday in the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, made him the 16th player to become world number one since the rankings were introduced in 1986. Tiger Woods – at 623 weeks – has occupied the top spot for the longest amount of time, including the longest successive streak of 281 weeks from June 12th, 2005, to October 24th, 2010. Tom Lehman, who held the number one position for one week, has the distinction of holding it for the shortest timespan.