My 2014 Sportsman nominee: Golfer Rory McIlroy

Alan Shipnuck's 2014 Sportsman nominee, Rory McIlroy.

Alan Shipnuck | Nov 13, 2014

My 2014 Sportsman nominee: Golfer Rory McIlroy /

This essay is one of more than 20 nominations for SI's 2014 Sportsman of the Year. You can see all of this year's nominees here.

Eighteen years ago, on the occasion of Tiger Woods being named SI’s Sportsman of the Year, the great Gary Smith typed these famous words: “Who will win? The machine…or the youth who has just entered its maw?”

It took a while, but we all learned the answer to that one.

Now along comes another once-in-a-lifetime talent, trying to navigate the crushing machinery of superstardom while somehow maintaining the inner peace that his solitary sport demands. Rory McIlroy deserves plenty of accolades merely for his Woodsian on-course accomplishments this year: two major championship victories, a World Golf Championship win, a W at the European tour’s flagship event at Wentworth and a starring role at the Ryder Cup.

My 2014 Sportsman nominee: Theatrics

But he is my choice for Sportsman of the Year because he did all of this while battling The Machine with uncommon grace. No brand-name athlete in any sport is as honest and unguarded as McIlroy. Days after breaking off his engagement to tennis starlet Caroline Wozniacki he showed up a press conference and offered a raw, emotional appraisal of a broken heart. When he has discussed a simmering lawsuit with a former agent, McIlroy is defiant and angry. Forced to choose sides for the sake of the Olympics, this Northern Irishman didn’t hide the anguish of having to play politics. After winning the British Open at Royal Liverpool he couldn’t help but take the piss out of the local football fans at the trophy ceremony. McIlroy talks trash on Twitter to his fellow competitors but is unfailingly kind and accommodating to his legion of fans and the little people who toil in the shadows at the grand golf courses he visits. He woos models at nightclubs; his voice catches when he talks about the dead-end jobs his parents worked to support his boyhood golf dreams. In all places, and seemingly at all times, McIlroy is never anything other than himself. Class and authenticity are two of the rarest commodities in sport, and he has both in spades.

Of course, we once celebrated Woods’s virtues, too. The machine never rests, and McIlroy could yet disappear down its gullet. But for now we are blessed to get to enjoy, unfettered, McIlroy’s artistry and passion and the sheer joy he exudes in having very nearly mastered his craft. What makes this such a monumental season is that he has offered the hope that the machine doesn’t always have to win.

Published Nov 13, 2014

ALAN SHIPNUCK

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Alan Shipnuck wrote his first cover story for Sports Illustrated as a 21-year-old intern in 1994. Like his cover subject, Ken Griffey Jr., Shipnuck matured into one of the best of his profession. When he was hired in 1996, he became the youngest staff writer staff writer in SI's history. Now a senior writer at the magazine, he writes regularly on golf and has been honored multiple times by the Golf Writers Association of America. In 2008 he became the first writer to finish first in the same year in both the feature and news writing categories in the Golf Writers Association of America annual writing contest. Though he specializes in golf for SI and Golf.com, Shipnuck has written on a variety of topics, including the 2007 (Brett Favre) and 2008 Sportsman of the Year (Michael Phelps). He currently writes a popular weekly column, Heroes and Zeroes, for Golf.com. His first book, Bud, Sweat & Tees, was published in 2001 and followed misadventures of unknown PGA Tour rookie Rich Beem and his caddie, Steve Duplantis. The book became a best seller after Beem's stunning victory at the 2002 PGA Championship. He is also the author ofThe Battle for Augusta National: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe, which was published to excellent reviews in 2004; Publishers Weekly said Shipnuck "superbly recounts all of the debacle's hilarious, sad, serious and absurd details." His most recent book is The Swinger, a raucous novel written with fellow senior writer Michael Bamberger and released in July 2011. Shipnuck has also been a contributor to Artworks Magazine, Travel & Leisure Golf, Golf & Travel and Golf for Women and has appeared on CNN, NBC'sTODAYand ESPN's SportsCentury series, in addition to numerous other television and radio shows. A 1996 graduate of UCLA, Shipnuck lives in Carmel, Calif., with his family.