“It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward” – Rocky Balboa
When it was announced that Sylvester Stallone was reprising his iconic Rocky Balboa character – picking him off the mat, so to speak – for a 2006 reboot, I was fully prepared to hate the movie. After all, the first two movies were exceptional and then they’d gotten progressively worse, with Rocky V being the movie equivalent of Breó (Guinness’ short-lived attempt at white beer) or Ed Sheeran rapping.
I know there’ll be people reading this and screaming ‘heresy!’ Not because of my digs at Breó or Sheeran spitting bars, but because they feel Rocky IV was the best of the series. And if you like your cheese thick, creamy and with a side of cheddar, then maybe it is, but not for me.
Anyway, Rocky Balboa was surprisingly good, and the scene where the ageing pugilist goes all philosophical and delivers the above line to his son, for me, it’s where the movie peaks because that’s the essence of the character; he’s the man who keeps getting up, who keeps coming back for more, who’s taken every one of life’s punches and keeps on moving forward.
And it’s a quote that was reverberating through my mind as I walked from the 18th green at Royal County Down to the media centre last Sunday, a quote that’s been reverberating through my mind ever since.
I don’t care how much Rory McIlroy tries to play it down, but losing that Irish Open was a gut punch delivered with the combined forces of Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago and Rocky Balboa himself.
I’ve never experienced an atmosphere, a sense of anticipation, or a buzz quite like that surrounding the 18th green when Rory’s 7-iron landed and came to rest about 12 feet from the hole, and I’ve never seen an atmosphere deflated like when that putt drifted by.
I’m adamant that, outside of the close calls at majors, this will be the tournament loss that haunts Rory most.
Few golfers have ever had the success that McIlroy’s had, but even fewer have had the number of near misses, hard luck stories and late blow ups.
Yes, Rasmus Højgaard played extremely well and got three sizable chunks of luck at Royal County Down, chipping in twice for birdie on the back nine when he’d have taken your hand off for a tap-in par, then finding a favourable enough lie in the right rough on 18 to be able to muscle his way to the green, but Rory had a four-stroke lead after 58 holes and played the final 14 in level-par.
It wasn’t quite the collapse that we saw at the U.S. Open earlier this year, but it’s a tournament that he should’ve won and there’s no escaping that.
It remains to be seen what transpires over the final 36 holes at Wentworth, but that McIlroy is the bookmakers’ favourite once again, competing against the strongest field to assemble for a regular DP World Tour event this year, is testament to his ability as a golfer, of course, but also to his ability to pick himself up off the floor and go again.
It would’ve been easy to wallow in self-pity, to curse the breaks he didn’t get and those that Højgaard did, and to turn up at Wentworth with a stinking attitude and simply go through the motions.
But that’s not Rory, and for all the criticism that’s levelled in his direction when he fails to deliver – and I’m as guilty as anybody there – he keeps coming back, keeps believing that next time it’ll be different. Call it folly if you like, I’ll call it fervour.
It’s not about how hard he hits, it’s about how hard he can get hit and keep moving forward. How much he can take and keep moving forward.