Of all the Father’s Day gifts new U.S. Open champion, Rory McIlroy gave his father, Gerry over the year’s he’s never once presented him with a sleeve of golf balls.
“Over the years, I’ve got dad socks, underwear, pullovers, jackets and things like aftershave,” said McIlroy on winning the U.S. Open.
McIlroy was quizzed: “Old Spice?”
He said: “No, he doesn’t like Old Spice. He prefers Polo aftershave and the one in the green bottle.”
It started with Polo aftershave (...in the green bottle) & was capped on Sunday wit the Father's Day present of the U.S. Open Championship.
Again he was asked: “What about golf balls?”
He said: “No, he and I have never been short of golf balls, so I’ve never had to buy him golf balls.”
But on the 18th green Sunday at Congressional Gerry McIlroy’s only child presented him with the best present Father’s Day gift of all – the gleaming U.S. Open trophy.
It was McIlroy’s ‘thank you’ for the years his parents had devoted to help nurture Mcllroy to a Major Champion.
Gerry and his wife, Rosie have devoted their lives to Rory since he first began hitting plastic golf balls at the tender age of just two years old.
They’d wake up with their young son chipping balls down the wooden floor hallway into a clothes dryer.
“Rosie and I had a sense then that Rory had a talent as he just took to the game so quickly,” said Gerry McIlroy.
When McIlroy was just four, Gerry took him to the Holywood Golf Club where he was introduced to the pro, Michael Bannon.
Bannon gave him a lesson from a mat beside the club’s 16th hole.
At age nine, Bannon became the Head Professional at Bangor. Rory went with him and nearly 20 years on Bannon has still been McIlroy’s only coach.
Rory’s prowess with the golf club was clear but what wasn’t so clear was how do a working-class couple find the money to pay for golf lessons and driving their young son all over Ireland to compete in competitions
Gerry worked at a cleaner at a Bangor sports club from 8am to noon and then he’d double as a bartender at the Holywood Golf Club from noon to 6pm, and then after a quick supper, it was back to the sports club to serve drinks from 7pm to midnight.
He said: “I’ve always been a working-class man and it’s the only work I knew, so putting in the extra hours was not a concern for me.
“Of course, the hours were long but look now at the rewards. I couldn’t be happier.”
And with money the McIlroy’s had saved they accompanied their nine-year old son in 1998 to World Under-10 Championship in Miami.
It was the first of McIlroy’s many amateur titles and the first of four straight economy class trans-Atlantic trips for the McIlroy’s.
Now with success in the professional ranks, the McIlroy’s now travel First Class and Gerry’s since given up his job at the golf club and now looks after Rory’s many houses.
But Rory’s never forgotten the values and principles his parents have instilled in him.
True, he’s earned over Euro 8m in prize money in just over three years and enough money to buy his parents and himself new houses and new cars and all the trappings of the rich and famous.
Unlike many of the world’s top sports stars, McIlroy’s demeanours just the same as it was when he the then 15-year old played his first European Tour event.
Then to see the pictures of McIlroy in Haiti prior to travelling the Washington, it’s clear here is one of golf’s greatest young stars with his feet firmly on the ground.
It’s his parents, Gerry and Rosie you can thank for that.
And now with his U.S. Open first prize cheque, McIlroy has enough money to buy his father 287,020 bottles of Polo aftershave – the one in the green bottle!
MEANTIME –
Rory McIlroy will return to the Holywood Golf Club at 3pm this afternoon (WED) and some 18 years after first visiting the Northern Ireland club where his father, Gerry worked the bar.
News leaked of McIlroy’s return will turn his return into biggest stage show in the humble Holywood’s Club history.
So much so, his management company ISM have employed security staff with thousands expected to flock to the Club in suburban Belfast.
