Rory McIlroy: The next Tiger?

When Rory McIlroy choked away a 63 hole lead at Augusta in April, I felt incredibly bad for the young golfer and wondered if he'd ever be able to overcome one of the biggest meltdowns in major golf history.

After this weekend's US Open, I no longer feel bad for McIlroy. The 22-year-old kid from Northern Ireland responded to a historic collapse at the Masters with a historic win at Congressional this weekend.

From one of the the worst collapses ever to the largest Open win ever. Talk about going from extreme to the other.

The easy angle here would be to talk about how Rory is the next Tiger. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. No, instead, Rory is what Tiger should have been…

In Tiger we watched a young golfer who won every major amateur championship, turned pro, and kept on winning for nearly 15 straight years. He did it by hitting the ball long and making long putts amidst massive pressure.

Tiger blew you away with his confidence, steely demeanor once in the lead, and used his own aura to intimidate you into playing poorly… And it was fun to watch.

However, with Tiger, we were never able to embrace him. He kept the media at bay with friendly but calculated responses. He smiled, but never more than necessary. He was friendly, but not warm or compassionate.

This is not to say Tiger was a bad guy, he was simply a businessman who went to work and did his job better than anyone else. He was dominating, dramatic and thrilling, but never someone you wanted to grab a drink with.

Enter Rory McIlroy. We watched him fall apart at Augusta and we felt bad for him. We then watched him handle the post match interviews with humility and class. Anyone who didn't want the kid to succeed at that moment is heartless.

So it was with a nervous heart that we cheered for him as he held the lead at Congressional through 18 holes. Then 27, 36, and 54. The leader by a ton entering the final day of a major tournament; once again.

We'd seen this before and all of us were hoping it wouldn't happen again. And it didn't. McIlroy increased his lead and finished at 16 under, crushing Tiger's record for lowest score at the US Open. He set his own record and did it with a smile on his face the whole day through.

I heard a story that Rory tossed his glove to a young kid as he walked of the course Sunday. You think that kid and a few of his friends will end up following McIlroy for the next twenty years? Tiger was gracious in victory, but never an ambassador to the game.

The golf world needs Rory McIlroy. Watching golf over the past few years, without Tiger, has been boring. No one to cheer for, and no one to embrace.

McIlroy's epic fail at August may have been the best thing that ever happened to him. It forced him to prepare himself better to handle the pressure and it has now generated a following for himself unlike anything we have seen since, well, Tiger.

It's important that McIlroy keeps winning, but it's more important how he does it. Keep on smiling, keep tossing gloves, balls, tees and whatever else is in his pocket, to kids in the crowd, and the golf world won't need Tiger anymore.

Never thought I'd be able to say that.