I've seen the future and the Tiger Rors

Quick pop test for the class. How many majors has Seve Ballesteros won? How about Nick Faldo? And what about the king himself Arnold Palmer? The answers of course are 5, 6 and 7. Now I presume all the well educated sports fans who read the Kingbet blog got that right. So now consider how many majors you think Rory McIlroy will win. I'd heard 20 bandied about and that if he didn't equal Tiger Woods he would be a failure. Hang on a minute if he didn't double the amount of majors Arnold Palmer won he'd be a failure? When did the bar get so high and who set it?

Rory McIlroy is the most talented player on the circuit right now. Of that there is little doubt but does that mean he'll win every single event he plays? When McIlroy plays to his potential he's virtually playing a different sport. However this is only his third tournament win. Jason Day is only 23. What about Matteo Manassero, Rickie Fowler or Ryo Ishikawa? They can all play too and are as young. So let us not be so hasty as to rule out every other golfer.

In the midst of success we all get excited but let's just take a step back. One of the US pundits put it perfectly when he said we've become "Tigerfied". We expect all our golfers to be the next Tiger. Rory McIlroy is not the next Tiger, just as Sebestian Vettel is not the next Michael Schumacher. Rory McIlroy is the next Rory McIlroy. Any talented golfer can win one major, step forward Ben Curtis and Graham McDowell. The very elite among them can win multiple times see one P. Harrington. To win 7 or 8 is elite in the extreme. To win 18 simply astonishing. Now I'm not saying I don't want Rory to win 18 times. I hope he does but I don't think he will and I don't think we can class him a failure just because he doesn't catch the mighty Tiger.

Rory will win plenty more major championships. Now if anybody read my last blog you'll appreciate that I'm a terrible tipster. But I'm going to put my neck out and say he won’t win as many as Tiger Woods. I still think he'll hit double figures but he won’t challenge Nicholas. Tiger Woods has what the Aussie's call "sheer bloody-mindedness". Woods would not have visited Haiti the week before the US Open. I’m not saying for one minute that McIlroy isn't the arch competitor just that he appreciates there are more important things in life then golf. Woods thinks golf is the most important thing in the world. By staying grounded and surrounding himself with good people, McIlroy will not go off the rails in ten years time and could play well into his forties. The nonsense that a fellow blogger on here wrote about "nice guys finishing last" is just that. Harrington and now McIlroy have put that argument to bed. Nobody is suggesting that winning isn't the most important thing to McIlroy but he's shown he can win with humility. The public want McIlroy to win. Could you say the same for Woods in his pomp?

Not so long ago people said Tiger Woods was unbeatable and we've seen how quick that's changed. As a people we're quick to put players on a pedestal. Can we for once allow a sports person to develop at their own rate? On Sunday with his simply majestic final round, Rory McIlroy opened the door to greatness. In fact I'd go further and say he's got one foot in the door. He's not in the pantheon of greats just yet however.  Over to you Rory. Seamus McDaid is an unemployed sports agent living in New York City. Follow Seamus @fbspecial on Twitter