The Sunday afternoon Tiger charge has been replaced with the Thursday afternoon Rory sprint.<\/p>\n
Once again a major championship is being held this week. And, once again, Rory McIlroy holds a noticeable lead after the first round. McIlroy\u2019s name has been atop the leader board after day one of last year\u2019s British Open, this year\u2019s Masters and now the U.S. Open. It\u2019s a remarkable feat for any golfer, let alone a 22-year-old.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s only one problem\u2026golf tournaments aren\u2019t won on Thursday. The zero major championships to McIlroy\u2019s name are evidence of that. Each of the past two times Rory\u2019s sprinted ahead of the pack he\u2019s been brought back to Earth by big numbers in later rounds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been easy to look at the past two falters as missteps along a greater learning curve. Anyone who doubts McIlroy will win majors isn\u2019t paying attention. He\u2019s arguably the most talented golfer in the world.<\/p>\n
No matter what happens the next three days though, this tournament will impact McIlroy\u2019s image more than the first two. We ached for him after Augusta. If things don\u2019t go well for the next 54 holes at Congressional, we may ache for him yet again, but we\u2019ll also have questions.<\/p>\n
Rory\u2019s 22. Which means he\u2019s an infant in his career. Barring injuries or unforeseen hiccups, McIlroy should have 80 more major championships he can contend in and possibly win. There will be many, many more chances.<\/p>\n
However, if he fails to follow through this time, people will start to think of him as a front runner who can\u2019t close. McIlroy seems mentally tougher than most\u2026but those burdens have a way of pinning you down. Ask Phil Mickelson, who waited a decade too long for his major breakthrough. Ask Sergio Garcia, who\u2019s still waiting.<\/p>\n
Maybe Rory will come back to Earth today and the focus will shift elsewhere before the weekend. Maybe he\u2019ll throw another 65 on the board and keep running away. Maybe, but who knows.<\/p>\n
All we know is guys who consistently lead major championships after day one do so because they have big cajones and loads of game. McIlroy has a chance to be one of the truly great players. He needs to start capitalizing on these brilliant starts to make that a reality.<\/p>\n
McIlroy deserves big time credit for responding to his Masters meltdown with another strong start. He\u2019s ensured that come Monday, we\u2019ll talk about him in one way or another. Here\u2019s hoping that like so many of the greats that came before him, he steps up and defines the conversation.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Sunday afternoon Tiger charge has been replaced with the Thursday afternoon Rory sprint. Once again a major championship is being held this week. And, once again, Rory McIlroy holds a noticeable lead after the first round. McIlroy\u2019s name has been atop the leader board after day one of last year\u2019s British Open, this year\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-mouth"],"yoast_head":"\n