THE POWER OF PERSEVERANCE
I couldn’t help but think last weekend about how confusing things have to be when you’re a kid. On Sunday, four year-old Poppy McIlroy watched her dad, Rory - the best golfer of this generation - make a putt and win a golf thing. And then what did he do? He cried. She probably didn’t know, of course, that what he’d finally won was the Masters. She only knew that he’d won, and then he couldn’t keep it together. The crowd cheered. Everyone hugged. And dad cried.
Of course Poppy McIlroy didn’t understand the historical significance of what she’d just witnessed. She didn’t know, and probably didn’t care, that by winning the Masters last weekend, her dad had just completed the career Grand Slam, the rare feat of winning each of golf’s four major championships in a career, something only five other golfers have accomplished. She also didn’t understand that making that putt and winning that golf thing was about way more than even the historical significance of the achievement. It served as the end of a long and difficult personal journey for her dad, and served as a message - for her and for each of us here today - on the power of perseverance.
Poppy McIlroy didn’t know that her dad was a golf phenom who rose to stardom in his teens and who made capturing the first three legs of the Grand Slam look easy by the time he’d turned 25. She didn’t know that her dad had been coming to the Masters every year since, coming close to victory before it slipped away. He’d finished in the top five of the tournament four different times. She didn’t know that with each passing year, the pressure on him to win this tournament and the questions about why he couldn’t continued to grow, and that the burden of showing up and falling short was growing heavier by the year.
Even though she was there for her dad’s victory on Sunday, she didn’t understand how close he was to giving it away this year. She didn’t know that his first hole was a disaster that cost him the lead. That he’d fight back, regain that lead and appear in control before blowing it again. Or that he’d go to a sudden death playoff and respond - in each of the many moments of testing he faced throughout the tournament - like the champion he proved himself to be.
When your four years old, you don’t understand how hard it is to keep showing up and to keep falling short, year after year. You don’t understand how powerful self-doubt can be, or how difficult it is to pick yourself up and bounce back time after time. Poppy McIlroy didn’t understand why making that putt made her dad cry, mostly because when you’re four years old, you can’t comprehend that making a putt represents so much more than just another stroke on a scorecard.
A few minutes after that final putt dropped, Rory McIlroy stood at a podium wearing the winner’s green jacket and trying to express what that moment meant. Still struggling to keep his emotions in check, McIlroy thanked the tournament organizers and patrons. He took a deep breath, and then turned and looked at his wife and daughter.
“Last but certainly not least,” he said, “over to my left. My family. My team.” Here he goes again, Poppy must have been thinking as the tears filled his eyes. “They’ve been on this journey with me the whole way through. They know the burden that I’ve carried to come here every year to try and try and try again.” He paused and focused his attention on his little girl. “And the one thing I would say to my daughter Poppy who’s sitting over there: never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up on your dreams. Keep coming back. Keep working hard, and if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. I love you.”
Someday, Poppy McIlroy will understand why her dad couldn’t stop crying after he made that putt and won that golf thing. His story at the Masters - not just his long-awaited win or his entry into the exclusive Grand Slam club, but all those years of struggle and failure that came before it, too - all of it will serve as a powerful message to her, just as it should to each of us here today, on the value of staying in the fight and refusing to give up. On the reward that’s available to each of us if we endure, and on the power of perseverance.
