Your Rory Primer For Thursday, June 30

Thanks to reader Tim for the heads-up on the U.S. Open Champion making an appearance tonight on CNN's Piers Morgan show at 9 ET/6 PT.

In this week's Golf World, Sam Weinman sits back and takes in the post-Rory-wins-U.S. Open coverage and makes this shrewd observation:

We are all breathless because we needed this, because McIlroy isn't just a graceful swing and an engaging smile. He represents an antidote to all that ails our game: stagnant participation numbers, course closures, sagging ratings. The Tiger Boom has come and gone, but maybe the Rory Boom is just around the corner. It is all wonderfully intriguing -- and, of course, all terribly unfair.

Lest we forget, McIlroy is 22, little more than two months removed from a final-round 80 in the Masters. Even after the U.S. Open, he owns a modest three professional victories. In other words, he is still human. If we're smart, that's the way we'll continue to look at him for the time being.

For all the talk about how Rory is everything that Tiger is not, it's important to note that Woods is a product of the bubble we created around him. We (the media) did a hell of a job creating the legend, but a pretty crummy job of portraying the person.

Robert Lusetich touches on the brewing pressure Rory is facing in his homeland over his roots and religious beliefs. It's eerily similar to some of the backlash Tiger received for his Caublinasian reference and equally as much of a non-story to anyone under 35. Irish, British, Catholic, Protestant...oy.

Cynics believe that money is at the root of McIlroy’s evasiveness.

Simply put, in Europe it’s more commercially advantageous to be seen as British, while in the United States, being identified as Irish is far more lucrative.

Maybe there’s some truth to that, but I’m starting to see another, deeper truth to what McIlroy’s doing.

On the day he returned to Northern Ireland with the US Open trophy last week, East Belfast — about five miles from where McIlroy lives — was the scene of the worst rioting in years as Protestant Loyalists attacked a primarily Catholic enclave.

It was ugly and, for many, a bloody reminder that the ghosts of the past haven’t been buried despite the peace agreement.

“I know that 99.9 percent of the population doesn’t want to see that,” McIlroy said when asked about the sectarian riots. “Everyone just wants to live in peaceful times."

Here's one of the stories over-analyzing Rory's political/religious positions.

And on a lighter note, Sandra Harwitt tells us about Rory's visit to Wimbledon, his serving as inspiration for Andy Murray, and shares some fun stuff from practice sparing partner John McEnroe about his golf struggles.

As for McEnroe, he revealed, to no surprise, that his temper gets the better of him on the links, just like on the tennis court.

"You probably can imagine with my frustration levels being fairly high at times that I've been known to run out of clubs before the round is over," McEnroe said, smiling.