In the latest episode of Not Another Golf Show, Ben and Gianni sought to explore the titular (headline-ular?) question. Rory McIlroy is one of the greatest golfers of his generation. He’s a future Hall of Famer and four-time major champion. As the Ulsterman has progressed throughout his career, he’s been progressively more comfortable speaking his mind. Going hand-in-hand with this, journalists have come to expect him to do so and tee him up on seemingly every matter of significance in the game.

Plenty of golf fans appreciate McIlroy’s candor, consideration, and insight. However, there are some vocal critics in the online and IRL peanut galleries who seem to be of a different mind.

Is any of the blowback fair? Who’s right? Ben and Gianni get into all of this in their discussion (edited for clarity) below.

Gianni: I feel in general, McIlroy gets the odd heckle comment more than most. Do you think there’s a majority of fans that have resentment against McIlroy? Is that down to his role on the Ryder Cup or…? Because they were rooting hard for Bryson to beat him in the U.S. Open last year…

Ben: My feeling about it is, well, he’s very, outspoken might not be the right word, but sometimes he is. But he’s always, or at least often, keen to give in-depth answers, to let you know what he thinks, what he feels, when he’s questioned about something. And that happened prior to any of the LIV stuff.

So there may have been a sentiment prior to that. There was some negativity around him sort of as an interviewee and acting as though, the feeling maybe, that he was like, I don’t know, presenting himself as an intellectual or something, because he was giving more thoughtful and in-depth responses than the average player or something.

So, I think you could, going back that far, you could see that kind of sentiment in the Twitterverse, in the then-Twitterverse. Obviously, that went to another level with the LIV stuff and him being tasked with really being the defender of the Tour and, you know, anti-LIV, anti-Greg Norman, all of that. So that was pushed even further. I think that the staunch LIV supporters found him, you know, particularly distasteful. So that’s adding kind of another layer to it. And it feels that that was enhanced somehow with the policy board kind of squabbling that went on last year…he’s on it, he’s off it.

And then it seems that maybe some folks on the Tour side feel like he should have kept fighting the fight, not at the PGA Tour proper, but fans, PGA Tour fans, people who are primarily fans of the PGA Tour, felt that he could have, should have kept fighting the good fight against LIV and kind of not lay down his sword there, you know, with A, kind of abandoning that and B, the calls for unification, which he’s been making publicly for a while now

It feels like those are all component parts that come to mind when just kind of thinking of this off the top of my head.

I don’t know. Is there anything else you would point out? I mean, the Ryder Cup probably is part of it.

Gianni: Yeah, because I remember 2016 he was getting heckled quite a bit. That’s when he made the eagle in one of the final days and at the end of one of the days and did the bow to the crowd. I remember he had to get, I’m not sure if it was at the Ryder Cup, when he had a fan ejected for saying something pretty bad to him. And then, yeah, it’s just strange to see it at a PGA Tour event. But I guess maybe, guess because he’s such a good player too, he attracts some of that, I don’t know. It’s just strange, because you don’t see Scheffler getting anything or any of those guys, He is, I would say, he’s a great interviewer. That’s why he speaks so much. But I think he regrets probably getting involved in the LIV discussions from the beginning. Like he was never going to win that battle at the end…

Ben: Yeah, like the Patrick Reed match at the Ryder Cup. Yeah, I think that’s part of it. It’s maybe almost like a sort “golfers shouldn’t be so have so much to say” or something. I don’t know. But I mean, it does seem that he kind of gets flack for being so revealing or so thoughtful or in-depth or whatever word you want to use in interviews, which I think is incredibly unfair and certainly, you know, being in the media space, thank goodness he does say so much because it gives us tremendous fodder for interesting things to discuss. If he was totally buttoned up, I mean, imagining what that would have looked like over the past few years…We would have really missed out on a lot of interesting stories!

Gianni: Yeah, you need that. I mean, he says what he means and he means what he says. Like I actually went, I’ve gone the opposite direction with Rory. Like 10 years ago, I wasn’t a fan, just purely because I was a Tiger fan and Rory was winning majors and Tiger wasn’t. But now I’d love to see Rory win a major this year. I would love that.

Ben: Yeah, and I’m sure the having not won a major somehow adversely plays into all of this. Like, I’m sure there’s the quit talking so much and go win a major. Like, I feel like I’ve seen that on, you know, the Twitter replies, like, I don’t think that helps any of this. If you’re listing all of those things I named, I really don’t think any of them are fair. And he’s held to a standard that’s unfair. But as far as what I can think of as the component parts of, you know, the anti, from the anti-McIlroy contingent, all of that’s what comes to mind.

Gianni: Yeah, and I’m so glad that despite the heckling, the comments on social media, despite all that that he gets, he still sticks to his guns and speaks his mind. I love that because otherwise, can you imagine if everyone was just like minding their P’s and Q’s? would be so dull. So I’m thankful for that.

Ben: Yeah, there certainly are others, you know, near the top of the OWGR who are not of that sentiment and are taking a different route, which again, you can understand because of the blowback. But again, I think he’s tried to shut it down a little bit at times and gone dark here and there. But for the most part, he has remained engaged and outspoken, and definitely to his credit as the golf mediaverse is certainly better for it.

Gianni: Yeah, we need more of it. The sport needs more. Just for entertainment purposes, because it is an entertainment business too.

Listen to the full episode of Not Another Golf Show below.