Rory McIlroy has been talking about the difficulties associated with his stardom.
The Irishman, despite being only 29-years-old, has been at the top of the game since the age of 19, when he attained his first professional win at the Dubai Desert Classic.
The exposure to the limelight has not been entirely beneficial to the former world number one, as he revealed recently.
A poll this week named the four-time major winner as the most famous UK sportsman, an accolade he wasn’t particularly thrilled to be blessed with:
I dreamed of being a great golfer. I never dreamed of all this other stuff,
I feel very privileged that I’m in the position that I’m in, but I just try to live my life the way I normally would. I never wanted to be famous. I wanted to be known for my golf and that was it.
The issues for McIlroy are found in the loss of privacy:
Everyone knows what you do 24 hours of the day,
You can’t really get away from it too much. That’s why I’ve tried to withdraw from social media and keep my life more private. As time has gone on, I’ve started to value that part of my life more.
This season has proved to be a mixed bag for McIlroy, a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational representing his first tournament win since 2016.
At the Masters, the current world number number eight was in the final pairing on the last day of the competition, but spluttered home to a fifth placed finish at Augusta.
With three majors remaining this year (and the Ryder Cup), McIlroy has plenty of chances to make 2018 a year to remember.
