On Monday in Dubai a big-time player delivered against a Big-Time Charlie.
As the sport remains gripped in civil war, Rory McIlroy ’s victory at the Dubai Desert Classic represented the best of golf, the best of us.
Not just because he won but because who he won against.
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Patrick Reed is one of those rebels who left the already cash-rich PGA Tour to join the even richer but morally bankrupt LIV series.
Long before this week’s drama, he and McIlroy had history, having been paired together in a bitter Ryder Cup singles match back in 2016, before going toe-to-toe in the final round of the Masters two years later.
Each time Reed held his nerve.
But this week he couldn’t even hold his tee.
Just before the tournament started, Reed approached McIlroy at the driving range, seeking to shake the Ulsterman’s hand.
When McIlroy blanked him, Reed reacted by throwing a tee towards him. "I'm living in reality,” said McIlroy, “but I don't know where he's living. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't expect a hello or a handshake.”
Why so?
“I was subpoenaed by his lawyer on Christmas Eve,” McIlroy said. “Trying to have a nice time with my family and someone shows up on your doorstep and delivers that, you are not going to take that well.”
Reed’s lawyer then issued a statement saying Reed was not part of this lawsuit. The golfer in turn later called McIlroy ‘an immature little child’ before adding further detail to an event that appropriately enough was dubbed a ‘storm in a tee cup’.
“Since my tees are LIV tees I flicked him one,” said Reed. “It was kind of a funny shot back.”
And McIlroy is the ‘immature’ one out of this pair?
When the sniping ended and the golf began, sure enough the pair were neck and neck to win the tournament, before treegate followed teegate as Reed fired a shot into a palm tree on the 17th before replays showed him taking his drop from the wrong tree.
McIlroy reacted by actually defending Reed on this one.
“I felt it was fine. Kev Feeney is a really experienced referee and he’s not going to do anything wrong,” said McIlroy.
“Had it been anyone else in the field it would have been a non-issue, but because of certain things in the past, people brought some stuff up, which is maybe unfair in some ways. I’ve stood and defended Patrick in some of the controversies.”
Standing up for people and for what he believes in is part of McIlroy’s DNA.
Last year he saw little choice. The game’s traditional tours were being threatened by LIV and the Saudi Arabian dollar.
Without asking to become a leader, McIlroy emerged as the unofficial spokesman for the sport's values and all of a sudden as the world saw him in a good light, the reflection shone brightly here at home.
He deserved the good PR because he has not always been appreciated on Irish soil, not to the extent he should be.
He is world No1 and has been for a cumulative total of two years at different stages of his career.
As a contrast, Padraig Harrington has made it to the top five on 11 occasions, Shane Lowry just four times.
Neither man ever made it to No1. But McIlroy has spent 120 weeks in that position, something only three players, Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Dustin Johnson, have bettered.
And we’ve only scratched the surface.
In 2022, McIlroy won the Harry Vardon Trophy for a fourth time - only two players, Seve Ballesteros and Colm Montgomery, have mastered that total.
Monty, of course, never landed a Major. Only five Europeans have won more than McIlroy’s four.
So, perhaps it’s time we copped on to ourselves in Ireland.
We just don’t seem to realise what we’ve got - not just a spokesman for the sport’s soul - but an absolute genius who keeps delivering.
In the last 12 months he finished second, third, fifth and eighth in the four Majors. Bear in mind that from 1964 to 1997 only one Irishman - Christy O’Connor junior - held the outright lead at the end of a round in a Major, never mind a tournament.
That he hasn’t added a green jacket, that he hasn’t added at all to his Majors tally since 2014, has become a stick to beat him with.
But why?
The game is a true global one - in the way rugby is clearly not.
But compare the reaction to Andy Farrell’s side climbing to the top of the charts following their stunning year in 2022 to McIlroy’s ascent back to No1.
One achievement was widely celebrated, the other largely ignored.
But while impressive, it is a lot easier to be No1 in a sport where there are only 11 decent sides compared to golf where on any given week any player in the world’s top 100 can find a groove and win an event.
As it happens, McIlroy has won plenty, Dubai the 36th professional win of his career. Now it is clear he has also won something else, something deeper: a nation’s respect.
Should he finally get fitted for that green jacked in April, the argument about his status should end for good.
For not only is he Ireland's greatest ever golfer, but also our greatest living sports star.
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