After consistently losing to one American prodigy during his teenage years, superstar Rory McIlroy expected his contemporary to challenge for majors after turning professional
Rory McIlroy has admitted that he was surprised to not see “unbeatable” former golf prodigy Kyle Porter rise to superstardom after he equalled a record set by Tiger Woods during his teenage years.
The Northern Irishman became only the third player in history to win four major championships before the age of 25 during the early years of his career. However, American contemporary Porter failed to scale such heights, despite equalling Woods’ haul by winning four Junior World Golf Championships en route to turning professional.
The highly-tipped star from Scottsdale, Arizona made his PGA Tour debut back in 2007 but failed to make the cut at his opening three events. Alongside failing to hit expectations at the Jude Championship, John Deere Classic and U.S. Bank Championship, the now-34-year-old struggled with injuries during the infancy of his career.
Reflecting on the talent demonstrated by Porter during their years as rivals, superstar McIlroy admitted that his peer was a major thorn in his side as teenagers. Speaking to Normal Sport, he confessed: “He was from Scottsdale, Arizona. I finished second and third to him all of my teenage years.
“Like, you just could not beat this guy. He went to UCLA (University of California Los Angeles), he continued, as he outlined the then-starlet’s formidability on the course. “He won the U.S. Junior, I think. He won the U.S. Junior Am and I thought this kid was unbeatable.”
Porter made the cut at the 2008 John Deere Classic but that would be the first and only time he would do so across his six tournament outings on the PGA tour. Eventually, he gave up the sport in 2015, later telling A Life in Golf: “I started losing some passion for the game in college.”
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“I started to become very technical with my golf swing and that led me down a dark path of not enjoying the same game I grew up loving, “he continued, as he opened up on how his career fizzled out. “My old coach taught me there is a lot more to life than chasing a white ball being hit around a golf course.
During the interview with Normal Sport, McIlroy also earmarked Ollie Fisher and Jamie Lovemark as two players who he had expected to see reach to upper echelons on the game. The Northern Irishman said: “If you would have asked anyone 20 years ago… everyone would have said Ollie Fisher was probably going to go on to have a better career than I’ve had. It’s hard.
“You just look at him, you’re like, this guy is like 6’4 and absolutely ripped and swings the club perfectly,” he continued, as he talked up Lovemark’s attributes, before adding: “I don’t know. There’s so many intangibles in golf that some guys looked like world leaders at an early age.”