After a long decline in Tiger Wood’s game due to injury and personal issues, it seems the golfing legend is finally back to his best. However the American has failed regain his world number one ranking due to the rise of Rory McIlroy.
From County Down, Northern Ireland McIlroy is just 23 years old and already has two major wins to his name. He won the US Open in 2011 and this year won the PGA Championships breaking records in the process. The Northern Irishman won by a record eight strokes on the last day which beat that of Jack Nicklaus in 1980 and McIlroy is also the youngest multiple major champion since the late Seve Ballesteros.
Now McIlroy is still a long way off Wood’s total of 14 majors and it would be silly to say that the Brit is as good as or even better than Woods despite his great form recently. But you have to remember that McIlroy is still very young and has a long golfing career ahead of him in which he could match Wood’s record or even surpass it.
Having said that Woods is still only 36, which in golf terms is still young. You only have to look at the likes of Tom Watson who is 63 and was still playing on the PGA tour up until a couple of years ago. So in theory Woods could carry on for another 20 years if he wanted to.
What this means is that we golf fans can look forward to many years of head to head battles between the world’s current top two players and watching some top class golf. Woods comfortably beat McIlroy by six strokes in the World Golf Final in Turkey the week after the Ryder Cup. However Tiger is fully aware of McIlroy’s ability and potential and acknowledges that he has got his work cut out.
“We’ve all seen how talented Rory is, it’ll be fun to battle him for the next decade or so and hopefully we’ll have many more battles to come,” he told Sky Sports.
Woods went on to say how he is relishing the challenges ahead of the next tour event in China.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun going head-to-head with Rory. I enjoy head-to-heads so it’s great to do this in China.”
With McIlroy seemingly improving every year there is every chance that the European Ryder Cup team member can push on and really stake his claim as the best in the business and perhaps even break Wood’s record of consecutive weeks at the top.
This will be no easy feat, Tiger Woods has deservedly won his title as one of the most successful golfers of all time and only has Jack Nicklaus to catch in term of major wins but it looks set to be one of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time.
Lee Rowley
@leerowley10
