De gran jugador a leyenda (SPA-ENG)

From great player to legend

Fortunate are those who fate places before an extreme challenge like the one I'm about to present. I remember that we are here in a sports community, and I will only touch on this topic at hand, a necessary clarification, if required.

I sincerely hope that this challenge comes to fruition, to enhance further the resume of a highly successful career, such as that of the extraordinary Northern Irish golfer Rory Daniel McIlroy.

Curiously, a sporting career can be called into question when triumphs and outstanding performances have been beyond the common denominator. It's not something that comes as a surprise; achievements are discussed and questioned whenever a person achieves resounding success. More and more is demanded of them, some of those triumphs are questioned, and they are pushed to the limit when they fail to achieve their goals. Most can't withstand such pressure, and that's why we should tip our hats to the few who have managed to reach the highest possible level in their careers. It must not be easy to be in their shoes.

Rory's case deserves to be studied, to analyze his career in detail and arrive at the sensible and logical conclusion of the player's greatness, beyond his frustrations of recent years and the triumph that perhaps makes him a legend today.

The Northern Irish player appeared on the world stage of top-level golf when he was just 22 years old, winning his first major tournament. It was in 2011 that he took the US Open title. From then on, incredible years followed, and Rory was touching the sky with his hands. He quickly rose to number 1 in the world rankings, and it was rumored he would be better than Tiger Woods. The facts at the time backed up the claims. Between that year of his breakthrough and 2014, three more Grand Slam tournaments indicated that the experts were right. He won the PGA Championship in 2012, the British Open, and the PGA Tour again in 2014.

Suddenly, and without warning, his star dimmed, and although he continued to win less prestigious tournaments (26 on the PGA Tour and 16 on the European Tour), he never won a major again. To make matters worse, he lost several in the closing stages, as if to indicate that his game was there, but the mental strength to withstand the pressure was gone.

At the close of the third round of play yesterday at Augusta National in the first major tournament of the season, the Masters, Rory McIlroy leads the table by two strokes over Bryson DeChambeau, a 31-year-old American currently a member of the 54th Tour, who has caused so many clashes and disputes since his split from the PGA Tour.

Bryson DeChambeau is a winner of nine tournaments, including two majors. He won the US Open on both occasions, the last of which came last year, against Rory McIlroy, whom he defeated by one stroke. Will that event have an impact today? We'll see, although the psychological advantage is in favor of the American.

For the Northern Irishman, it will be an opportunity to leave behind the label of great player and become a legend of the sport if he wins the Masters at Augusta today. Why is this tournament so special? You may wonder, dear reader. Many others have won the Masters and are not considered golf legends. It's simple: if Rory wins this tournament, he will have achieved his own Grand Slam, meaning he'd have the trophies from all four majors in his showcase, something only six golfers have achieved in the sport's long history. Imagine how difficult that will be.

The history of golf, as capricious as the ball it's played with, could today place Rory McIlroy in the highest category to which an athlete can aspire. He certainly has a game; the problem is mental; his ghosts have haunted him for more than a decade, and perhaps, only if he manages to overcome them, will he be worthy of eternal glory, although it may seem unfair given the greatness of his sporting career.