When Tiger Woods blitzed the U.S. Open field at Pebble Beach in 2000 I was a 15-year-old. Now, 11 years later, my 26-year-old self saw Rory McIlroy do something similar at Congressional Country Club.<\/p>\n
As a 15-year-old, I watched Woods in awe and amazement. But I was watching someone older than me do something incredible. At that time, I thought greatness was something we all found and achieved\u2026in the future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This time, I watched a kid four years younger than me do something I\u2019ll never do. I didn\u2019t watch with the same awe and amazement. But, I watched with a level of appreciation I couldn\u2019t comprehend 11 years ago.<\/p>\n
Before we anoint McIlroy the next Tiger or we debate tirelessly which performance was more incredible\u2026take pause to appreciate the greatness in what Rory just did. It doesn\u2019t need to exist in parallel or comparison to the feats of those before him. For four days, McIlroy probably mishit a total of somewhere between one and five shots. That\u2019s incredible. That\u2019s mind blowing. That\u2019s greatness.<\/p>\n
As children, we believe that greatness is inside all of us. I don\u2019t doubt that it is, but very few of us realize it. Most of us are good at certain things and average at the rest. We walk through ordinary lives that are beautiful in their own right. They don\u2019t pale in comparison to those of famous athletes or stars.<\/p>\n
But it is something to watch someone do something truly extraordinary. And, make no mistake, that\u2019s what Rory McIlroy did last week at the U.S. Open \u2013 extraordinary.<\/p>\n
When I was 15, I believed I had a performance like Woods buried within me somewhere. Now, at 26, I know that I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
But, Mr. McIlroy did. And, that\u2019s incredible. And, for that, we should stand and applaud. We should appreciate that we\u2019ve just witnessed greatness.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Tiger Woods blitzed the U.S. Open field at Pebble Beach in 2000 I was a 15-year-old. Now, 11 years later, my 26-year-old self saw Rory McIlroy do something similar at Congressional Country Club. As a 15-year-old, I watched Woods in awe and amazement. But I was watching someone older than me do something incredible. […]<\/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-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-mouth"],"yoast_head":"\n