DUBAI — Rory McIlroy didn’t just look spent Sunday evening, he sounded spent — finally, exasperatingly seated for the first time in hours. His voice was hoarse and his shoulders seemed to have exhaled just as much as his lungs.
McIlroy had lost a playoff but won a seventh career Race to Dubai title, all after eagling the 72nd hole — the combination of which would send any of us into the depths of our chair cushions. But at this point in his career — after a lifetime of lifting trophies in this Middle Eastern country alone — very few literal results could get McIlroy so emotional. It’s the results with special meaning that pull it out of him, and this was clearly one of those.
European golf followers wouldn’t be surprised. About a half hour earlier, McIlroy gave a greenside interview to Sky Sports interviewer Tim Barter, where the topic of Seve Ballesteros was raised. McIlroy had passed him into second all-time for Race to Dubai titles.
“It’s amazing,” McIlroy said, taking a deep breath. “I had a conversation with his wife, Carmen, before I went out to play today and she told me how proud he would have been.
“Yeah, it’s — aaah.”
Another big breath.
“I said this on this green last year to you,” McIlroy continued. “He means so much to this tour and to the European Ryder Cup Team. We rally so much around his spirit and his quotes and everything he meant for European golf.
“To equal him last year was cool but to surpass him this year — yeah, I didn’t get this far in my dreams. So it’s very cool.”
He teased it, so no, you’re not imagining it. McIlroy gave almost this exact same interview to Barter last year.
We’ve seen this a few times now — McIlroy getting choked up at the mere mention of Ballesteros’ name. He certainly made part of the reason clear in those answers, too. The Ghost of Seve is very real for anyone at the DP World Tour and anyone connected to Ryder Cup Europe. His quotes are on every commemorative wall. The silhouette of his swing is iconic. But for this reaction to arrive multiple times for McIlroy, in such similar scenarios — just 12 months apart — made me at least wonder if there was any extra meaning for him.
Few pros are as introspective and vulnerable enough to share those inner thoughts as McIlroy, so it’s possible he’d thought about it, too. Why does he not get nearly as emotional when discussing his Irish golfing heroes? Or Tiger Woods? Arnold Palmer?
The truth sits with Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s golf-obsessed father, who along with his mother, worked multiple jobs so their son could pursue what would end up being a Grand Slam golf career.
“I think Seve’s spirit lives on in the European Tour and in the European Ryder Cup Team, and he was always my dad’s favorite player,” McIlroy said during the first question of that press conference. His voice went from slightly-hoarse to something much more gentle. He blinked away a few tears and shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, he’s a beacon of what European golf stands for, and I … I just think about growing up and playing golf and my dad being such a big part of it, and then, his sort of connection with Seve — or Seve was the one that really inspired him to play golf. And then, I don’t know, it’s just a parallel to that.”
This was an answer getting pieced together one emotional word at a time, like extra cars to a train already in motion. But then he picked up steam and finished with a smile.
“When I hear Seve, it just sort of brings me back through my whole journey in the game, and yeah, it’s quite emotional.”
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