The main man, numero uno, isn’t alone at the top. For sure, Rory McIlroy is the headline act; and his win in the 89th Masters at Augusta National – where he completed the career Grand Slam – only served to further his global recognition index: his image, with that of Tiger Woods, now the chart-topper when it comes to public awareness of professional golfers, and up there with Lionel Messi among all sports stars.
McIlroy, of course, is the golfer with the X-factor, and the one who gets the adulation of the fans. The popularity of his playoff victory over Justin Rose on Masters Sunday was evident by the hair-raising, spine-tingling nature of the roars from the galleries crowded on the hillocks around the 18th green, an amphitheatre of sorts, and subsequently at the green jacket ceremony on the practice putting green where a chorus of “Rory-Rory-Rory” was more akin to a football setting.
Behind the man, though, is a team all working in unison for the greater good of McIlroy.
Team McIlroy starts and finishes with the man himself, but each integral moving part syncs to form the unit that led McIlroy to finally slot the last piece of the Grand Slam jigsaw into place in such dramatic fashion last Sunday, where he became the first player since Tiger Woods to achieve the feat and join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods in the most elite club in professional golf.
To give an indication of the scale of McIlroy’s achievement, it is worth noting that only he and Woods have managed the feat in the last half-century, while the Northern Irishman, its newest member, is the first European player to do so. Arnold Palmer never managed it. Neither did Seve Ballesteros, nor Nick Faldo.
The team behind McIlroy includes his caddie, Harry Diamond; his manager, Seán O’Flaherty; his coach, Michael Bannon; his putting coach, Brad Faxon; his sports psychologist, Dr Bob Rotella.
The multi-million euro money side of the brand is managed by Rory McIlroy Inc (Rory McIlroy Management Services Ltd) which has a five-man board of directors which includes McIlroy and O’Flaherty, along with his father, Gerry, and equity investors Neil Hughes and Peter Crowley.
Fittingly, the first person to get a bear hug from McIlroy was caddie Harry Diamond. More than a bagman, his best friend too. Diamond, a former Irish amateur international and who, like McIlroy, is a past winner of the West of Ireland amateur championship, started caddying for the new Masters champion back in 2017 and has been by his side for multiple PGA Tour (including Tour Championship and The Players) and DP World Tour wins. Finally, the pair have a Major together, all the more notable for it being the Masters.
It was Eamon Lynch, the host of Golf Today on the Golf Channel and a columnist with Golfweek, who brought tears to McIlroy’s eyes in the Masters champion press conference on Sunday night.
Lynch, also from Northern Ireland, but living and based in the United States, asked: “You and Harry grew up together in a tiny town playing childhood games together. What does it feel like to have him standing beside you today when you achieved that childhood dream?”
“Eamon,” responded McIlroy, emphasising the reporter’s name as if buying a little time. “Yeah, I’ve known Harry since I was seven years old. I met him on the putting green at Holywood Golf Club. We’ve had so many good times together. He’s been like a big brother to me the whole way through my life. To be able to share this with him after all the close calls that we’ve had, all the crap that he’s had to take from people that don’t know anything about the game, yeah, this one is just as much his as it is mine. He’s a massive part of what I do, and I couldn’t think of anyone better to share it with than him.”
It was Diamond who brought McIlroy back to the task at hand after he’d failed to close the deal by getting up and down from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole in regulation and with a playoff pending.
“[Harry] said to me, ‘Well, pal, we would have taken this on Monday morning,’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, absolutely we would have.’ That was an easy reset. He basically said to me, ‘Look, you would have given your right arm to be in a playoff at the start of the week.’ So that reframed it a little bit for me,” explained McIlroy.
O’Flaherty was another to get the bearhug treatment from McIlroy. The Dubliner first worked with McIlroy when he was managed by Horizon Sports Management and moved with the player when he set up his own management model in 2013.
In his time with McIlroy, O’Flaherty has proven to be thoroughly professional in his business and media dealings but also clearly has a personal bond and friendship that goes beyond the working relationship.
The golf men behind McIlroy feature Bannon, who has been his coach since childhood at Holywood Golf Club, and putting guru Faxon who is a more recent addition, joining Team McIlroy in 2018.
Bannon is the man behind McIlroy’s swing. He knows it inside out, from long before Trackman became a thing. A man of few words, aside from conversations with his player, Bannon flew in to Florida the week before the Masters for any fine-tuning that was needed. He works with McIlroy, and nobody else!
Faxon, the putting guru, is more inclined to share his thoughts and did so on Sunday evening in his role as analyst with the Golf Channel in explaining his work with McIlroy: “There are three things, and it comes under pressure more than a casual round of golf. I like what we’ve figured out and there are only a couple of things we have to look at. One is setup, usually the relationship between his right arm and left arm. Sometimes his right arm gets a little high and the clubhead tends to go out straight and too square, shut, and then he’s in nowhere land ... we work a lot on contact.
“Middle of the ball on middle of the face. When he gets nervous, he hits a little bit low on the face. Pressure does that. I can’t imagine the amount of pressure he felt today ... we have a routine. If you get out of sorts, start over ... I can’t imagine that putter would ever feel heavier than it did for Rory McIlroy today and I can’t imagine what he felt over that last putt today.”
Sports psychologist Rotella – who actually worked with Faxon in his playing days and has been a longtime mind guru to Pádraig Harrington among others – brings the power of positive thinking McIlroy’s way.
Before the Masters, McIlroy observed: “I first met Bob back in 2010, so I’ve known him for quite a while, 15 years, and we’ve always chatted, even if we haven’t worked officially together. We’ve always kept in touch.
“[We’re] talking about not getting too much into results and outcomes, we talk about trying to chase a feeling on the golf course. Like if you’re on the golf course, what way do you want to feel when you’re playing golf? That’s something I do every week that I compete. If I can chase that feeling and make that the important thing, then hopefully the golf will take care of itself.”
It didn’t entirely. Two double-bogeys late on in the opening round on Thursday meant McIlroy cut a despondent figure walking off the 18th green. That is when Rotella got to work, focusing on the positives – how well he had played through 14 holes – and, tellingly, reminding him that all of the truly great sports stories in history had been comebacks.
When McIlroy signed for a second round 66 to move his way into contention, the high-five between the two men spoke volumes. The tide had turned back McIlroy’s way and that momentum would carry him on – albeit on a roller-coaster ride of a final day – to victory, with Rotella understood to be the person who advised McIlroy to adopt the no talk strategy in the final round when paired with Bryson DeChambeau.
Team McIlroy were, to a man, entitled to share in the great victory!
Team McIlroy
The Caddie
Harry Diamond was an accomplished amateur – playing internationally for Ireland and winner of the West of Ireland Amateur Championship in 2012, joining McIlroy (back-to-back champion in 2005 and 2006) on the trophy – and longtime friend before taking up the caddying duties in 2017. He provides the yardages but, in truth, more than that in quietly interjecting or advising when needed.
The Manager
Seán O’Flaherty has looked after McIlroy for more than 15 years, his professionalism evident in dealings with media and very much in dealing with the McIlroy brand in deals with Nike and TaylorMade.
The Coaches
Michael Bannon is the swing coach responsible for creating one of the best swing techniques of any player. Bannon first took the young McIlroy, aged seven, under his guidance back when he was club professional at Holywood Golf Club and maintained his coaching after moving to Bangor Golf Club. He has been fulltime with McIlroy since 2012. Brad Faxon, a former PGA Tour player, with eight wins on the US circuit, was known as one of the game’s great putters and, since retiring from competitive play, has earned a reputation as one of the best putting coaches on tour.
The Mental Coach
Dr Bob Rotella – author of best-sellers Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect and Golf Is A Game of Confidence among others – has been Pádraig Harrington’s longtime go-to man for mental coaching and has become an integral part of McIlroy’s backroom setup in recent years.
The Money Men
The five-person board of directors for Rory McIlroy Inc. includes both Rory and his father Gerry, the man who first put a club into his son’s hands as a toddler. Seán O’Flaherty, who comes from a business background, along with equity investors Neil Hughes and Peter Crowley complete the quintet who oversee McIlroy’s off-course marketability.
