Rory May Need a Nemesis to Realize Full Potential

     Like everyone else, I was blown away by Rory McElroy’s performance at the US Open over the

weekend.

     Anytime you can lap the field and I consider lapping when your winning score of (-16) doubles the second place finishers margin of (-8). McElroy was very impressive during his comments following the Masters in April and I figured if he lived up to learning from it like he promised he would bounce back at some point this year but he quickly counterpunched and the golf world noticed.

Golf is a very difficult sport to play at an elite level but McElroy’s practically flawless swing leads many to believe he will be around for a long time. I hope for his sake that a rival rises up to walk between the ropes side by side with him in the final group on a consistent basis. Phil is on the north side of 40 and Tiger Woods is an old 35. One of the young bucks needs to step up and stand alongside McElroy. Could it be Charl Swartzel, Zach Johnson or one of the tours young bucks? My theory is Palmer had Nicklaus, Hogan had Snead and Tiger had no one to challenge him and golf hit a speed bump when Woods was just too good and intimidated his contemporaries for a decade. What could provide to be a drama of irony is if Woods regains most of his game and provides spoiler to McElroy.

Can you imagine an American wearing the black hat in his own country and plays second fiddle to McElroy the Irishman?