What’s next for Rory McIlroy? This golf-crazed NBA champion has thoughts

FLOURTOWN, Pa. — Rory McIlroy said he planned to “send it” everywhere around Philadelphia Cricket Club at the Truist Championship.

So, on Thursday, I set out to see if a Golden Age golf course could combat a generational driver armed with modern technology.

McIlroy hit his drive on the par-4 first hole 333 yards and made par. On the 2nd hole, a 381-yard par-4, McIlroy blasted driver 373 yards.

“Wow,” a voice behind me said with a chuckle as McIlroy strolled off toward his ball en route to an easy birdie.

It was Kyle Lowry, a 19-year NBA veteran and 2019 world champion with the Toronto Raptors. Lowry is a member of Philly Cricket and certified golf sicko (he played in the pro-am this week).

Like many golf fans, Lowry was glued to the television last month as McIlroy battled his demons during a roller-coaster back nine at Augusta National that eventually ended in an exorcism, the green jacket and a career Grand Slam.

“I think that’s just mental fortitude,” Lowry told GOLF.com of McIlroy’s win. “He put the work in. He made a couple of mistakes. But he figured out to stay the course of his game, stay the process and he continued to chip away at it. I’m sure he wanted the easy win, but when things got difficult, he stayed in the moment. He didn’t let his game, his mind do anything, didn’t let it drift off.

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“You put the work in, you put the effort in, you put the time in. The timing just has to be correct. The timing has to be right. For Rory, I think the timing of that was perfect.”

While McIlroy’s Masters win resonated with many, short is the list of athletes who have traversed a similar path at the top levels of sport. Only a select few have scratched and clawed to a summit that seemed unclimbable and then wondered what comes next.

Lowry is one of them.

The former Villanova Wildcat, who is now 39, was a staple of the mid-2010s Toronto Raptors teams that continuously had their NBA title hopes derailed by LeBron James. Three years in a row, Lowry and the Raptors entered the playoffs as one of the top seeds, having won 51 or more games. Each year, James and the Cleveland Cavaliers unceremoniously bounced them.

So, year after year, as McIlroy came up short at the Masters — sometimes agonizingly so — Lowry could relate to McIlroy’s heartbreak in a way that few other golf fans could.

To feel you have all the tools needed to achieve a lifelong dream but to continually come up short — either due to your own mistakes or fate’s cold shoulder — is grating for those blessed with rare talent and an insatiable work ethic and resilience to match.

“He had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity,” Lowry said of McIlroy. “I happened to lose to one of the greatest players ever over and over and over again in LeBron James. When [McIlroy] got an opportunity to take advantage and when we got an opportunity to take advantage of it, we took advantage of it. That’s what happened. He took advantage of it. Just like us.”

Be it his 2011 Masters collapse, his 2022 Open defeat or the back-to-back U.S. Open heartbreaks at Los Angeles Country Club and Pinehurst No. 2, McIlroy kept climbing back into the ring at major championships. Filled with hope and belief that his time would come, he never relented. That’s a quality Lowry recognizes. The mental wiring required to endure heartache and torment, only to risk being damaged again, is uncommon. But McIlroy has it. Lowry, too.

“We’re different,” Lowry said with a laugh. “Some people would say we’re a little bit crazy or a little bit loco, but that’s who we are. We want to be the best in our fields and we continue to work at it. That’s what we love. Our passion is to be out there and do it over and over and over again, no matter what the failure looks like. Just continue to go.”

When McIlroy’s final putt dropped on Masters Sunday, he dropped to his knees as if his legs, weary of carrying such a burden, had finally given way. When he walked off the 18th green, you could almost see the weight that he had carried for 14 years dissolve off him.

“It was all relief,” McIlroy said after. “There wasn’t much joy in that reaction. It was all relief.

“I’ve been coming here 17 years, and it was a decade-plus of emotion that came out of me there.”

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When James finally left the Eastern Conference ahead of the 2018-19 season, the path was cleared for Lowry and new teammate Kawhi Leonard to make it to the NBA Finals, where they faced the dynastic Golden State Warriors. Lowry cleared the final hurdle in his journey to the Larry O’Brien Trophy in six games, with injuries to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson playing a factor. When Steph Curry’s final heave at the end of Game 6 landed in Lowry’s hands, he ran to midcourt with his arms outstretched as all his past playoff failures melted away.

“It’s the best high you’ll ever get,” Lowry said of that moment. “That high and just overall relief is everything you’ve worked for and more.”

McIlroy arrived at Philadelphia Cricket Club hopeful to win another Signature Event but with one eye on next week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club outside Charlotte. McIlroy admitted he’ll be “less on edge” next week now that his major drought is over and the career Grand Slam is complete.

But thinking that McIlroy will view whatever other wins or accolades come his way as gravy on top of a Hall-of-Fame career would be a mistake.

Lowry knows the buzz from winning is fleeting. For the best, all that matters is what comes next. To Lowry, a freed-up McIlroy will be a more dangerous predator than the one that arrived at Augusta National in early April. Summiting the mountain isn’t enough. There’s always another peak.

“No, no, no,” Lowry said. “He wants it again. And again. Yeah, you’ve got everything you want but why not continue to be better? You’ve worked this hard. Just because you’ve achieved it once, you want to feel that high again. That’s a high that you cannot get back ever again. That’s why athletes chase it because that high is unmatched.”

Two hours later, McIlroy stepped to the mic after his first-round 66 and was asked what he thinks we, the golf media, should talk about next week now that his major drought is over.

“Hopefully in two weeks time you’re talking about me being a six-time major champion instead of a five-time major champion,” he said.

Rory McIlroy is climbing again.