Robinson: Too much made of McIlroy too soon

With apologies to those who may have found solace in other tournaments in the interim, this week marks the return of Rory McIlroy and talk about whether golf has found its next big superstar.

A few weeks have passed since McIlroy's epic win in the U.S. Open at Congressional, where the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland set the golf world on its ear with his wire-to-wire romp.

The victory has, predictably, and quite understandably, given rise to talk that golf perhaps has its next Tiger Woods — or at least a player to approach what Woods has accomplished.

More on that subject in a moment. But first, the task that confronts McIlroy and the rest of the field in the British Open, which tees off Thursday at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, England.

McIlroy is the prohibitive favourite and, after three weeks of not playing and doing the rounds in Britain and Ireland on chat shows, magazine shoots, even appearing in the royal box at Wimbledon, his play will be monitored every bit as close as Woods was when he was pocketing major titles like Halloween candy.

McIlroy didn't shoot a single round in the 70s in last year's Open Championship at St. Andrews. The problem was just three were in the 60s, the other an ugly 80 that cost him a chance to seriously challenge eventual winner Louis Oosthuizen. McIlory tied for third.

St. George's is about as far away geographically from St. Andrews as you can get in Britain, situated along the south coast of England. But it's a pure links just the same.

The 2003 Open held at St. George's produced, arguably, the most unheralded major winner in the past decade-plus in Ben Curtis.

That year, Curtis was the last man standing after the two best players in the world at the time, Vijay Singh (T2) and Woods (T4), could not completely figure out the nuances of St. George's. Curtis registered six birdies early and a key 10-footer for par at the last to take the title. That year's event was equally memorable for the sad demise of Thomas Bjorn (T2), who failed to get out of bunker twice on 16 and blew his best chance at a major title.

Fast forward to 2011 and the golf world is abuzz with talk — some of it sensible, some of it not — that McIlroy is the next heir to the throne.

But comparing McIlroy to Woods at this stage can be summed up with a single digit: 1. That's how many major titles the gifted youngster has won versus 14 for Woods and how many majors McIlroy will need to win per season to match Woods's pace by the time he turns 35, the age the former world No. 1 is right now. Put another way, Phil Mickelson's pace of four major titles in a shade more than seven seasons is likely a more realistic barometer for McIlroy.

Viewed in that context, it shows how much work McIlroy has in front of him — and how premature the chatter has been. Make no mistake, McIlroy's triumph at Congressional was only comparable to Woods's victory in the 1997 Masters because both players were vritually the exact same age and dominated in a similar fashion.

But where the comparison gets even more out of whack is in assessing Woods's game in his prime to McIlroy's now. Woods showed sublime ball striking and holed virtually every pressure putt he could during his prolonged run(s) as the world's No. 1 player. At least it seemed that way. Putting, especially the pressure putts between five and 10 feet, remain the one weakness in McIlroy's game. That's what cost him at the Masters and it has been a bugbear at other times early in his professional career.

To be fair, when he's playing well, McIlroy's ball striking is so superior that it's possible he will win many majors and other big tournaments without truly being tested on the greens. That's how good he is tee to green.

Overall, the comparison talk seems incredibly premature, but at least McIlroy has earned the right to initiate the conversation. All too often over the years — remember banter about Sergio Garcia versus Woods, or how about the Big Five battles between Woods, Singh, Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen that never quite materialized? — the conversation was stamped out by Tiger's incredible ability to crush the competition.

Yet what McIlroy has done so well since the U.S. Open is get people talking and there's no harm in that.