Shipnuck: Golf Is Lucky to Have Rory

Alan Shipnuck drops by to talk about his new Rory McIlroy biography, and the pitch is simple. Of the three biggest golfers of the last 30 years, two have had their lives derailed by addiction, scandal, and vice. Rory is the one who stayed mostly normal.

Shipnuck says his esteem for McIlroy only climbed during the project, even with a few spicy moments along the way. He calls the book a feel-good story, not because it ignores the missteps, but because Rory has completed a long public journey and looks more content this week than he has in years.

The revelations are in the granular details. Before the 24/7 news cycle found him, Rory's early life was small, blue-collar, and sacrificial in a way the broad McIlroy lore only hints at. Shipnuck describes Rory's dad working three jobs in a single day. Up at 6 a.m. to clean toilets as a janitor at a rugby club. Bartending at the scrappy golf club where Rory learned to play. Quick dinner, kiss the wife, back to the rugby club until midnight. Then his mom Rosie heading out to pack boxes overnight at a factory.

That sacrifice, Shipnuck argues, is the foundation of the gratitude Rory still carries. Walking the town of Holywood outside Dublin, the golf club and the pubs where the story started, gave Shipnuck the texture that turns folklore into a real portrait.

Rory threw a couple of F-bombs at him on the driving range at Oakmont during the U.S. Open. The very idea of the book had gotten in his head. Stars at that level control everything. Social feeds. Ad campaigns. Tour content. A biography they can't manage is unsettling by design.

Shipnuck gave Rory the book at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. Caught up with him later in the week. Rory had started reading. Made me laugh. I like it. Shipnuck thinks he gets a pass. He also doesn't particularly care. The mandate is to write for the readers, not the players. The good, the bad, and the otherwise. In Rory's case, there is probably more good than bad, and the tenor is different from the Mickelson book. Shipnuck is fine with that.

Rich asks if Rory can do it again at Augusta now that last year's Masters win is off his back. Shipnuck does not hesitate. House money, for sure. Rory is swanning around the club in his green blazer, showed up early for the Women's Amateur and the Drive, Chip, and Putt, hosted the dinner. In past Masters weeks he lived on a knife's edge. This week he is relaxed, carefree, completely unencumbered.

Shipnuck would not be surprised if Rory shoots 62 on Thursday. He thinks Rory has cracked the code on that golf course, kept addressing his weaknesses, and is in the best place of his life and career.

The close is the pitch for the book and the pitch for the player. Rory McIlroy's best golf is in front of him.