Michael Foley

the impact of winning something and going back again.

The pressure is totally different.

Like there is really, especially in golf, because golf tournaments are so bloody hard to win.

Like there really is no pressure to do two in a row.

No, but coming into it on, like, I mean, if you look across history, there's only three golfers that done two in a row.

Like, I mean, coming into last week, whatever form you're in, the chances of actually it falling your way and you making it fall your way to win it, whatever about the context of the round or the tournament when you're in it.

There'll be an expectation, of course.

But, I mean, this is the thing.

This lad has lived with expectation since he was popping golf balls into a washing machine on UTV.

So, you know, I often kind of think about elite sports, like, you know, I try to think about elite sport like this, that what we see as superhuman, it is partly superhuman, but it's based on a God-given ability combined with...

a man-made work ethic that's beyond, that's right there at the very top of that kind of ladder.

So, like, what we find, what we imagine to be impossible is entirely plausible to him.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think it's that gap.

I mean, I've been thinking about this, you know, obviously he wins it last night.

You know, he's already the greatest, you know, European golfer of all time.

He's, you know, greatest Irish golfer of all time.

He's right there with the greatest the world has ever seen, which automatically makes him, in my mind, the greatest Irish sports person we've ever had.

And kind of trying to figure out our relationship with our greats, you know.

And I think as a nation, as a people, I think sometimes we struggle with that a little bit to kind of actually figure out Rory McIlroy or figure out whoever else you want to put into that category, you know.