View from the Street: One magical night at Augusta, and a reminder of what’s possible
Published
Malcolm Robertson
On Sunday, I sat late into the night with my two youngest sons and watched Rory McIlroy arrive, after a few last-minute complications, at the summit of his sport.
After he won The Masters, and became only the sixth man to have lifted all four of golf’s major championships, McIlroy was asked on Sky Sports how he would eventually explain the significance of his victory to his little girl, Poppy, clearly too young to understand the scale of her dad’s new-found legend.
Rory said: “It’s a story of perseverance.” He will tell Poppy that he went to Augusta for many years and did not achieve what he wanted to achieve. Despite that, he was never discouraged, and he kept coming back and giving it another go, for he had dreamt of this success.
His Instagram post the morning after read: “Dreams do come true.”
Dreaming big inevitably brings the risk of failure. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly,” wrote Robert F Kennedy. And for McIlroy there was huge jeopardy in failure at The Masters, including a career defined by his inability to handle pressure and live up to his talent. But he overcame all of that.
As a father, I loved hearing of my children’s dreams. They would be footballers, or rugby players. One of them – briefly – wanted to be a rock star. It didn’t matter to me whether those dreams came true, but I wished with all my heart that they would and implored them to never stop dreaming.
I’m fascinated and inspired by high achievers like Rory McIlroy. I had the privilege recently of meeting and listening to Katie Archibald, the Olympic gold medal cyclist, and Andy Murray will always be a hero of mine.
These are brilliant young athletes who overcome physical and mental challenges every day to compete at the top of their sport, driven by exceptional talent. But the real difference is the determination and belief and the endless pursuit of excellence.
For them, it is not good enough to come second. Complacency is a disease and mediocrity is an enemy. Tiny margins, tiny improvements make the difference – it is about elite performance, winning and being the best you can be.
For my sons to watch Rory do what he did on Sunday night, on the eve of life-defining exams, was – I hope – a powerful motivator.
These moments are good for the public mood too – in those few minutes after McIlroy’s win, we were all lost in the images of deep blue skies, the perfect pink azalea blooms, and manicured greens and creeks. And among the thousands of well-behaved patrons, at the centre of attention, was a boy from Holywood in Northern Ireland who had dreamt about what he’d just done.
God knows we need cheered up. I’ve become a little obsessed with YouGov’s mood tracker, which measures Britain’s frame of mind every week. Some highlights (lowlights) for you: this week, only 49% of us are happy. Nearly a quarter of us (24%) are sad. 40% of us are stressed.
Here’s one of the worst ones: just 13% of all adults feel inspired. Now, forgive me for I am not a political scientist, but that miserable statistic alone must surely leave a large gap in the market for leaders who possess the ability to inspire. Leaders who can lift their sights, and ours, to a better, more prosperous future.
So as Sunday turned into Monday – and I returned to the office after a short break in the gigantic spa that is Scotland’s Hebrides – I found myself contrasting these outstanding, inspirational sporting role models with some of the leaders charged with navigating us through the most sustained period of financial and economic turbulence and conflict for years.
If we’re honest, it’s not exactly inspiring. We have some politicians who appear content with comparing themselves to the average performers among their peers and settling for just being a little better than them. In some cases, they boast about it.
Some others talk incessantly about what they can’t do, and never seem to imagine what they can do. Others wilfully and casually misrepresent the truth or the motivations of their opponents.
It is a curious and debilitating mindset – one that must be completely alien to the Rory McIlroys of this world, and to our finest creative, technical and scientific minds too.
Meanwhile, on planet politics, leaders preside over a worsening global climate crisis, a migration and homelessness crisis, a child poverty pandemic, little or no economic growth and in Britain’s case, Victorian infrastructure that has served us well and will have to do so for a bit longer because replacing it seems beyond the wit of anyone.
I wonder: by what measure of success do our political leaders judge themselves?
Do they lie awake at night – as I’m sure McIlroy did – and wonder how they can be better tomorrow? How they will outperform every one of their peers and the very best of their competitors? How they might lead their country and their people to prosperity and happiness and imagine the legacy they leave behind more than the number of likes they get for the next few sentences they publish online?
There is some evidence to suggest they don’t do any of this, but fortunately now they have a new story of big dreams, perseverance, talent, integrity and belief to inspire them. Let’s hope they’re paying attention.