Rory McIlroy played in 16 PGA Tour events in 2012. He had 10 top-10 finishes including four wins. He won over $8 million in prize money plus pocketed the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus.
Rory added a Wanamaker Trophy to his trophy case. He won the Honda Classic holding off Tiger Woods who fired a final round 62. He picked up consecutive wins in the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the Deutsche Bank, as well as, the BMW Championship.
Throw in three more top-10’s in four starts on the European Tour and Rory has played in 20 events thus far in 2012.
He will probably play in at least three more European Tour events in 2012, The WGC-HSBC Championship, Barclays Singapore, and the DP World Championship in Dubai.
I make that 23 events world-wide plus a relaxing week at the Ryder Cup in 2012.
Isn’t there 52 weeks in a year? He is making over $20 million a year in a part-time job.
In 2011 he played in 11 events on the European Tour plus ten more on the PGA Tour. He had the big flop in the Masters after leading it through 63 holes and came back with the big win at the U.S. Open.
He has traveled around the world over the past two years to get to the No. 1 position on the Official World Golf Rankings.
It appears that he will be the second golfer ever to capture the money titles on both the PGA and European Tours in the same year.
Whatever he has been doing over the past two years is working. He is 23 years old and probably still has some golf stuff to learn.
McIlroy is in the prime of his life and career but he announced this week that he will play in fewer events in 2013.
He has a pocketful of money and evidently lady tennis professional and former world no. 1, Caroline Wozniacki is having a big influence on the young man.
Rory is finding out that it’s nice to be home and comfortable with a great looking and talented girlfriend.
Why would he want to jump on an oversized cigar tube and fly around the world just to play some golf for money?
Golf fans want to see Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods tee it up as often as possible.
World travel does wear on you as you get older but Rory is 23.
Rory has not professed any long term goals to beat Jack or Tiger’s records in golf but he has the potential to be one of the best ever in the game of golf.
Will missing events and taking time off hurt his game in the future?
Does Rory owe appearances to some of the lesser events in the golf world?
What he has been doing over the last few years is working. I’m not sure I would be changing too much at this point in a spectacular career thus far.