In Dublin for the Ireland v South Africa game, I hitched up with Bismarck du Plessis. We’ve been pals since the 2009 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa. He was then one of the world’s best hookers, I was another journalist looking for an interview. He invited me to the family farm near Bethlehem in the Free State. I warned him about needing at least an hour of his time. He and his family gave me three days.
Last Thursday afternoon, we strolled through the centre of Dublin. Trinity College impressed him. We walked down O’Connell Street and I tried to explain the importance to Irish people of the General Post Office. Told him about the Easter Rising of 1916 and its place in Irish history. Then from way back, 1970 in fact, a funny memory. That was the year the country first won the Eurovision Song Contest, courtesy of Dana. That meant Ireland had to host the 1971 renewal.
On some RTE television show, the host and audience discussed potential venues. Everyone thought they knew best, but each proposed venue was deemed not big enough. Then a man, sitting at the back, suggested it be held in the GPO. Sensing confusion in the audience, he explained: “Well, if everyone who claimed to have been in the GPO in 1916 was actually there, it’ll take any crowd.”
Du Plessis on the charge for South Africa against the USA in a 2015 World Cup pool match at the London Stadium
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In a coffee shop on Grafton Street, Bismarck and I met a mutual friend, Des Fitzgerald, who played 34 times for Ireland from 1984 to 1992. Des’s son, Luke, played against Bismarck during the 2009 Lions tour and, somewhere along the way, Des and Bismarck became friends. Over coffee, Des mentioned that though he should be retired, he’s still involved in the management of a veterinary practice.
Bismarck said he understood why people are prepared to spend fortunes on their dogs’ medical care. He shared a childhood memory. They had a much loved dog on the farm that became terminally ill and was in constant pain. Bismarck’s dad, Francois, told them the time had come. Bismarck was handed a shovel, his older brother, Jannie, carried the gun and the three left the house with the dog.
At a suitable place, Francois asked Bismarck to dig the grave. Then he asked Jannie to put the dog out of its misery. Bismarck understood why he had dug the hole but when Jannie pulled the trigger, he got deeply upset and railed against his dad and brother. What struck him about that moment was how his love for the dog had just overwhelmed his reason.
After saying goodbye to the lads, I wandered into the Hodges Figgis bookshop on Dawson Street and had my own little emotional reaction. Trying to choose a sports book, I was drawn to the Timothy M Gay biography of Rory McIlroy, Rory Land. This made little sense. Over the past 20 years, I’ve read a library’s worth of McIlroy material and watched him more often than any other golfer, Tiger Woods included.
If there’s any player we think we know, it is McIlroy.
There are plenty of books about McIlroy — but he is yet to write one himself
FADEL SENNA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Also I’d read that Gay received no co-operation from the player and no one in McIlroy’s immediate circle had spoken to him. Still, I was also aware Gay is a reputable author who’d been shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize and he surely wouldn’t write a 432-page book without offering some insight and telling the story in a way that seemed different.
The narrative does move along, helped by the rich and colourful tapestry of McIlroy’s life. What a backstory: the kid from a Catholic background in Northern Ireland whose great uncle, Joseph McIlroy, was murdered by loyalist para-militaries, who was a potential golf superstar at 12 and who has been about the only open book in the golf library.
I wondered how much new material Gay would unearth. Not much, I have to say. The story of McIlroy’s 61 in the second qualifying round at the 2005 North of Ireland Championship at Royal Portrush, aged 16, is well told but that extraordinary performance has already been well documented. Almost two decades ago, I spent an evening in the company of someone who worked at Royal Portrush, and in a relatively high-up role too. At one point in our conversation, this person asked if I knew that in his early teens, Rory had asked about joining and been turned down. More than once, apparently.
On what basis, I asked? “His dad’s job as bar manager was the issue.” I hoped that Gay might have stumbled across this story and explored it but, alas, no.
McIlroy supports Wozniacki, his girlfriend at the time, during a tournament in Eastbourne in 2013
JAN KRUGER/GETTY IMAGES
There is one truly great line in the book, one that I’d come across previously but forgotten. It involves McIlroy’s first serious girlfriend, Holly Sweeney. Their relationship was ended by McIlroy in July 2011. They’d been together for six years, and had lived together for the final two years. In early July, McIlroy hooked up with Caroline Wozniacki at a Vladimir Klitschko-David Haye fight in Hamburg. After returning he explained to Sweeney that he’d met Wozniacki and that was it.
Hell hath no humour like that of a scorned woman. Soon after McIlroy ended the relationship, he worried about missing a tournament because of a wrist injury. Sweeney couldn’t resist, putting a message on social media: “Rory McIlroy wrist injury fears: Well, that’s what happens when ye get rid of yer girlfriend.” In any other circumstances, McIlroy would have been the first to laugh. He and Holly remain on friendly terms.
What I learnt from Rory Land is that McIlroy has had a brilliant career and a close to extraordinary life. But this we all know. He’s interesting and so we want to know more. This was the reason I bought the book and then, because it doesn’t have more, the reason I was disappointed by it.
What we feel about McIlroy is connected to the way he plays the game, the brilliance that co-exists with the fragility. You can judge him by his exceptional talent and wonder why he hasn’t won more, or you can remember the wayward drives, the wedges that flew the green, the short putts that didn’t drop and then marvel at all that he has won. What you struggle to do is be indifferent to his humanity.
As for the book, there is only one book you should read about McIlroy. That’s the one he himself has yet to write.