New thread as old one is nearly at 10000 post limit.
Old thread
It’s a huge accolade, but it’s not exactly one of the greatest which is what you said. Top 20 would still be up for debate if he retired now. He won 4 majors in under a 4 year period , he blew hot.
I would think being ranked in the top 20 golfers of all time would be a fairly significant accolade, coming from a small country, given the other names that would be on that list
Barry McGuigan? Now I would have beeen a fan of his but why Barry McGuigan and not Steve Collins, Eamonn McGee, Bernard Dunne, Wayne McCullough (won the world title against a Japanese fighter in Japan after all), Carl Frampton......I could go on but in no way is McGuigan in this conversation. (And his behaviour as Carl Franmpton's manager was particularly shady which taints his reputation too)
How on earth will he go down as one of the greatest golfers? Maybe if your list has 20 in it I suppose. If you are expecting to him to win more majors then it’s a different conversation of course.
Paul O’Donovan deserves to be in the conversation as well - but he only really hits the public consciousness in an Olympic year
1 Olympic Gold
1 Olympic Silver
6 World Championship Golds
3 European Championship Golds
2 European Championship Silvers
A bit of recency bias in the above post. No mention of George Best, Eamon Coughlan, John Treacy or Ronnie Delaney. No names of anybody from GAA like Cooper, Cluxton or Shefflin. What about Cora Staunton who won 11 all-star awards, is considered the greatest GAA women's player of all time, won a women's FAI Cup in soccer, a Connacht championship in rugby and finished her career as an Aussie rules player where she was the top scorer for her club in four consecutive seasons.
Still none of them are in the frame for best Irish sportsperson. I'll put up two, there's a third but I can't remember his name.
It's between,
Tony McCoy who broke multiple records as a jump jockey. 20 times champion jockey and jockey of the year. British and Irish sports personality of the year awards. OBE and MBE for his contribution to sport. Most winners by a jockey ever in the UK and Ireland, and it's not even close. Complete domination of the sport for twenty years. Won all the majors at Cheltenham and every grand national including the biggest one.
Martin Sheridan who won three Olympic gold medals at the start of the twentieth century, all in the discus. He also won a bronze in the standing long jump.
When they decided to have an Olympic games every two years, it only happened once in 1906, he won the discus and shot putt and had three silver medals in the standing long jump, high jump and stone throw.
He held multiple world records. All this while working in the New York police.
On the most recent NLU podcast* recapping his win, KVB said Rory would be in the top 25 ever. Just about. I wouldn't put him as an "all time great". He's in the bracket after that. He needs to win the Masters or win a few more majors to move into that status in my opinion.
*the NLU team were not actually on the podcast, they were out filming a show. It was KVB and a guest.
Interesting discussion.
Team players are a cog in a machine. Roy Keane and Brian O'Driscoll were obviously on the apex of their respective sports. Roy on the best team in the world (unsure if true or not?), walked away from a grade B team in Saipan, not from injury or sickness, and given his role as a team player literally the largest fail a sportsperson could make at a time they are needed the most.
Ireland only become the best team in the world after BOD retired from rugby so from a stats perspective -he held back the team badly! 😄
Personally I think you need to go to individuals who live and die on their own performances to identify the best ever, as performance in a team is not clear.
This pool reduces to probably: Rory, Katie, Sonya, Padraig, Barry, Stephen, Sean, Michelle
Some of the above the legalities of their success is questionable unfortunately.
Rory jumps off the page here, followed by Sonya and Katie next. However we are on the Rory thread in a golf forum so a heavily biased answer!
Got what you were looking for, I suppose 🤷♂️
Funny one, and very difficult to quantify if you're talking about one sport vs another.
Golf is hard to fit in because even the most successful golfers of all time lose a lot more than they win.
I think Tiger has the highest win percent for golfers all time, and that's with a rate of about 22%, so still losing around 4 out of every 5 tournaments he entered over his career (and he was a complete freak at his peak which probably has coloured how we view every other golfers success since)
I think that Nicklaus (the man most put with Tiger as the 2 greatest of all time) is only around 12%, so losing 7 out of 8.
And Rory around 9%.
Whatever way you look at it, Rorys career is exceptional and he'll go down as one of the greatest golfers to ever play, never mind greatest Irish golfer.
I think the first Masters blow up hit him exceptionally hard, and the second bad loss, to Patrick Reed will have added scar tissue. He definitely has more majors in him and I hope he gets a couple more over the line but winning in golf is hard, and winning in majors even harder. 4 chances a year, against the best players on the planet.
crikey that escalated quickly.
Usual story. There’s a couple of prominent posters in this thread who get incredibly butthurt every time he wins and start the “but, but majors” every time to try to disparage it.
Solid reading, yes. Or maybe I should have excluded paralysed people, amputees, etc., to preempt your inevitable caveats. But you know what I meant.
Yeah defo our best golfer. Ireland greatest sportsperson is actually a cracking debate/pub argument, nobody stands fully out . And there’s a good few that have a decent shout.
I never said he was but Katie Taylor isn't either. Rory is our best Golfer that's for sure.
Same logic then with football when trying to claim Rory is irelands greatest sportsperson.
Not a single post on this thread during the tournament about the actual Golf and it has gone into meltdown since...
Good start to the year for Rory with a 2nd and a win but still plenty of room for improvement especially on the Sunday's. He has had 1 outstanding round each week which propelled him into contention on both occasions.
There is a pathway for most people to play golf, anyone can play it?
An lads, you're not seriously comparing Rory to Katie Taylor! What's the participation level of women's boxing versus men's golf? They're different stratospheres.
Just watched the final round highlights from yesterday. Even Rory was a little shy but none of the rest if them looked like they wanted or were capable of winning it. I don't think Cam Young will ever win, he's blown so many chances.
But there’s no pathway for most people to that. Anyone can take up golf, and if they’re good enough, can play at the very top level against the best. In boxing, if you’re a different weight class, etc., you can’t compete against these people. Add to that there were less than 1,500 professional female boxers globally (as of 2018) and it’s a very small pool at the top level (not to disparage her achievements…you can only beat what’s in front of you).
Doesn’t offend me in the slightest, there’s just no way KT is Irelands greatest ever sportsperson.
I’m a speedster. Maybe he will win another one anyways , he’s another few yrs in him yet.
You must be very quick at typing so 🤓 “Grown up and behave yourself”? Jog on.
Ah people have been saying that for 10 years. I think he will win 1 or 2 when he’s world no 50 and no pressure on. Don’t think he currently has the mentality for it .
Well unless you are surfing you will never catch a wave ,I would not rule out a major this year he wont be too far off the mark anyway and its all fine margins on any given day
But not stronger in the context of winning majors
Top boxers generally only fight against a small pool of elite fighters. Again, the number of elite golfers may be viewed as relatively small compared to other sports, so don’t be getting all uppity.
As I said, it’s a matter of opinion, I respect your opinion that McIlroy may be top of the list, personally I think Taylor is, sorry if that offends.
I would never have been a great Rory fan but in fairness he carries himself well these times ,he is ozzing with confidence ,it seems after all his disapointments in Majors it has made him stronger
Haha, ffs…how many professional women boxers are there in the world? Break it down by weight class, organizations, etc and it’s a very small pool she’s competing against.
A lot of my time? Hahahahah. Like 10minutes a year? Grow up and behave yourself.
MOD EDIT, you behave! attack the post not the poster please
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