Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

I never said that one equals the other. I think you’re being a bit over defensive.

I'd say the people that come out immediately after he wins a tournament to only talk about how he bottles majors is begrudgery

Rory has saved golf these past few weeks . Let there not be a bad word said against him until at least the Masters next year, when he shoots 75 in the opening round .

No, people aren't required to like him because he is Irish. However, given his character which is generally very affable, no real negative news about him and his success on the golf course, it is unusual for him to be so polarising. Other Irish sports stars with similar traits and success would be much more universally loved.

Loved was the wrong choice of word. Liked within their sport. And I'm not speaking about within this thread because using online forums as a basis of a "world view" of someone is a stupid thing to do. From my experience, there are lots of people who strongly dislike McIlroy for no apparent reason - nothing to do with his performances as they wouldn't be big golf fans anyway. They really enjoy when he doesn't win. So I'm not talking about people just criticizing him when he plays bad. I haven't seen this replicated with many other Irish sports people. Harrington and Lowry are largely liked by Irish people. Roy Keane was perhaps a polarising figure, but much of that was to do with Saipan. Again, I didn't say everyone has to like every sports person and I didn't say there is something wrong with him being polarising, I just said it's unusual for a figure like McIlroy to be so disliked by a lot of people.

I specifically said I was not talking about poster's comments, so I don't know where you're pulling that out of. Your first paragraph has absolutely nothing to do with what I said, this seems to be a trend with you too.

If you're speaking about me, when did I get pissed off?

Exactly, this is a discussion forum. You seem to get equally defensive when people pissed off about negative comments - they can if they want. You also ignored any point I made and brought it back to your agenda of posters defending McIlroy in the face of criticism, they can if they want.

My dad hates him. I love him. One of us is guaranteed a good week when he plays

Why don't you like him as a person (or personality as none of us know him!)? Genuinely curious!

Fair. I've never seen him in real life but have heard from lots of people who mix in golf circles that he's actually the soundest of the Irish lads.

Conor McGregor is an MAJOR MOD EDIT At least it's pretty obvious why he's not liked. I'm a fan of Roy Keane but Saipan divided the population on him.

Lowry is pretty universally liked, Harrington as you said. Robbie Keane was (I think), Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell. We don't have too many huge stars currently so it's hard to pick more examples.

MOD EDIT, way offside with that remark, keep it clean please OEP

So thats means he shouldn't play in it?

It's just boards.ie trying to separate itself from potential slander cases

I heard the contrary off a few European Tour guys I met in Abu Dhabi a few years ago. McIlroy pulled out of the tournament at the last minute due to an injury and they had no time for him at all. Now, this is going back maybe 5 years and I believe since he’s now a family man he’s meant to have mellowed but they weren’t too enamoured with him.

Anyone who’s recently impressed with him over his stance on the LIV thing, don’t let that influence your decision. McIlroy isn’t some human rights god like figure. He’s a sportsman and a business man who’s looking after his best interests. For those who’ll say he could have just jumped across to LIV to secure his business interests with the money etc. it’s not as easy as that. Almost all of his contracts and lifetime bonus money is linked to his PGA tour status. He’s also a legacy man so he wants the PGA tour to survive and thrive as long as possible. His anti Saudi stance is purely down to some contractual agreement/obligation that he has somewhere.

I’ve seen him a few times. He’s great with kids, not with adult fans. Do I care? No. If he’s a bollocks then it’s no skin off my nose, I don’t deal with him on a daily basis so what he does or how he is has zero impact on my life. He’s a bloody good golfer and that’s enough for me.

He has played it 11 times, hasn't suited his schedule the last few years and has been pointed out here he is a business man and his schedule is meticolously coreographed to maximise his potential success.

I never said he wasn’t charitable did I? Also, most of the top 20 golfers in the world have a charity or a foundation of some sorts. Admirable as it is, McIlroy isn’t the only one to do this.