Rory McIlroy, Tribalism, and Hollywood Endings
Revisiting my rooting interests at the 2022 Open Championship
Happy Open Championship week!
Back in January, Rory McIlroy bested Patrick Reed on the 72nd hole at the Dubai Desert Classic. Rory, a strong PGA TOUR advocate, took down Reed, a LIV detractor, in a week filled with drama, at least for golf’s standard. The ongoing tension and competition between the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf, along with some “us vs. them” comments Rory made last Fall, prompted me to flesh out some thoughts I’ve had swirling around in my head since last year’s Open Championship. Although the immediate reasons to root for Rory are probably obvious if you followed professional golf over the last 18 months, I have not seen anyone address the underlying dynamics that led to such zealous support for Rory from many fans including myself at last year’s Open Championship.
Much of what was written here had been drafted before the PGA TOUR-LIV merger news was announced. Some of the background info may now be obsolete.
When I saw this tweet, everything clicked into place.
Shooter McGavin would go to LIV, there is no doubt in my mind. He is the perfect candidate. Shooter is seemingly "a LIV guy". He's an aging arrogant slimeball who still draws eyes. He likely would also be enticed by the large, guaranteed paychecks.
Through this parody tweet, however, I came to understand more than just what a fictional character might do in the abnormal reality of professional golf in 2022. I also came to better understand the previously obscured dynamics influencing my own (and other's) rooting interests at the 2022 Open Championship. There were obvious reasons leading me to cheer for Rory McIlroy, which I understood, but I could never quite put my finger on why I was pulling for him so so heavily that week — until I saw Shooter McGavin in a LIV sweater.
In order to understand the stakes heading into the Open Championship, you need to understand the world of professional golf in 2022. For the first time in decades, a threatening rival tour to the PGA TOUR emerged. This led to so much more intrigue, resentment and squabbling from both players and fans compared to an ordinary year and if you are not up to speed, you may already be lost reading this. If you need background info or a refresher on the new Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour, Zach Helfand's piece in The New Yorker provides an excellent summary (or listen to Zach's discussion with Garrett Morrison of The Fried Egg). Or, if for some reason you need a refresher on Shooter McGavin and Happy Gilmore, here you go.
Though there were many twists and turns along the way, LIV Golf has now established itself as a new prominent tour in the professional golf landscape. Many of the world's top players have decided to join this new tour. Yet with the funding for its gigantic tournament purses and player contracts coming from the Public Investment Fund of a country with a horrible reputation on human rights and disingenuous overall goals for this tour, LIV Golf and the players who have joined are not viewed favorably by a vast majority of the golf community. Generally speaking, the LIV Golf ecosystem represents the Bad Guys to most golf fans.
Continuing with this simplistic view, if LIV Golf represents the Bad Guys, the PGA TOUR and its remaining players represent the Good Guys. The PGA TOUR does do impactful work with charities throughout each season and has a mostly meritocratic system that awards playing opportunities based on performance. The tournaments also have history and we, as fans, can contextualize player performance. The PGA TOUR feels more genuine and fair than LIV Golf, even if it still has its flaws. Throughout this past season, as LIV picked off more and more players, one prominent voice remained steadfast in conveying the PGA TOUR's value while also bashing LIV: Rory McIlroy. Luckily for the PGA TOUR, McIlroy is one of the best players of his generation and his opinions have the ability to sway others. Many pundits thought that if Rory went to LIV, the PGA TOUR might dissolve completely. Because of his calculated comments and stellar performance over the past season, Rory became singular representation of the Good Guys in the eyes of most. He also happens to be a fan favorite who hits the ball a mile if this is starting to sound familiar.
This tug-of-war in the professional golf landscape reached a crescendo at the 2022 Open Championship. This was (A) the 150th playing of the Open Championship, (B) the last major of a non-Ryder Cup year and (C) hosted at St. Andrews, the home of golf. On top of that, the LIV-related feuds were reaching their heights. This was the climax of professional golf in 2022. It seemed there was more on the line here than just a trophy. The outcome of this tournament had the potential to define for the next several years of professional golf.
Heading into the tournament, I felt Rory deserved to win. But I also felt strongly that he would, planting his flag as the conqueror of the game of golf. Though I knew I was rooting for Rory and I knew the immediate reasons why, my fervor seemed more intense than usual. I was not alone in these sentiments. In listening to No Laying Up's live third round recap (If you enjoy golf, please listen/watch these as well), Jaime Weir of Sky Sports joined the show and provided the following predictions about Rory:
It’s destiny. It’s destiny. I’m just, honestly, I’m fighting back the tears. I don’t what I am going to be like in 24 hours time. I’m not going to be able to control myself. I can’t believe it. It’s just, I’m smiling from ear to ear. This is it. It’s time. It’s time for the king to be crowned at the home of golf. (6:20)
He’s enjoying this sort of self-appointed role, as I said, the savior of golf if you want to be as grandiose as that. And, you know, I know it sounds a bit sort of corny but it just seems fitting that Tiger walks over the Swilcan Bridge and lifts his cap to the galleries… just as Rory is walking down the first fairway and Rory tips his cap to Tiger and Tiger tips his cap back to Rory and it feels like of sort of passing of the baton… Here’s Rory who was always going to be the heir apparent to Tiger and he’s going to go and lift that Claret Jug outside the steps of the R&A clubhouse tomorrow. (16:07)
Before every tournament, I typically want someone to win. While they become “my pick”, I am fine if any number of players I support take home the trophy. This week was different, I really wanted Rory to win. In addition, I couldn’t shake this premonition that he was going to. Regardless of what happened, somehow he would find a way to emerge victorious. Hearing a professional sports reporter echo these same thoughts made me feel justified. A single outcome was imminent. This week felt as if we weren’t so much just rooting for Rory as we were bearing witness to his greatness and inevitable victory.
Bringing this all back home, it was only upon encountering Shooter's “announcement” that was I able to reflect on the afflictions disrupting my expectations for this Open Championship. I had fallen into the mental traps of both tribalism and a belief in Hollywood endings which clouded my judgement and expectations of the event.
Last year in professional golf there became Good Guys and Bad Guys. Everything about LIV leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m sure many other can say the same. So, in my eyes, when I sided with the PGA TOUR, I sided with the Good Guys. And even though I’m just a fan, it would feel great have to my tribe defeat the others at the climax of the season. Besting a foe opposite feels good to our caveman brains. Since the outcome of this event felt so pivotal, the larger picture here was that Rory winning would prove that supporting him and the PGA TOUR was the correct side to be on. The PGA TOUR, The Good Guys, and all their supporters would emerge victorious. I was imaging how it would feel to have all my criticisms of LIV proved correct all while the main leader of my tribe established himself as the ultimate champion. How blissful the catharsis must be to watch your tribe prevail after many tense and bitter months of competition. I deeply wanted to be proved right so that I could point fingers at the other side. Textbook tribalism.
However, I also deeply expected to be proved right. I heavily owe this mental misconception to the typical endings of Hollywood sports movies. In Happy Gilmore, Happy emerges as the champion. Shooter is tough albeit scummy competition, but ultimately he is bested. The movie exemplifies the classic Hollywood trope where the Good Guy overcomes the mighty obstacles and wins the final competition. It became clearer in hindsight that Rory McIlroy entered this championship as the de facto Happy Gilmore with throngs of fans rallying behind him while LIV Golf [waves hands] was Shooter McGavin. Nobody wants to watch Shooter McGavin win and nobody truly believes he is going to either. Deep down, we all know what’s going to happen. The Good Guy will miraculously find a way through regardless of the challenge. Because of my predisposition to believe in Hollywood endings through films like Happy Gilmore, it seemed there was no other possible champion besides Rory.
But I should know better. Ultimately, this was not Hollywood. In fact, it might as well have been the opposite as Cam Smith defeated Rory in the final round and while they were still playing news leaked that Cam would be leaving for LIV shortly after the tournament. That Sunday did not end as I had expected. The Bad Guys prevailed. Months down the road, came the sad realization that Rory was never destined to win. Nothing in life is destined the way it is in the movies. At St. Andrew’s on Sunday, Rory was just another guy hitting a little white ball around a field sometimes.
There are really no earth-shattering takeaways here and some of these conclusions may seem obvious. However, I found it valuable to go back and reexamine my previous certainty about the 2022 Open Championship’s outcome. We all have our biases and now I am more aware of a few of mine. Looking back, it’s much easier to identify the dynamics at play. David Foster Wallace succinctly sums up what this exercise of analyzing my fandom meant to me:
To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded.
Thanks for reading. Time to go root for Rory again.