After the first round of the PGA Championships at Valhalla Golf Club, Timothy Campbell, his son Jonah and daughter Maggie, watched the back nine of the first round at Valhalla and saw Rory McIlroy take the lead in his attempt to win his fourth career major.
-= Lessons Rory Can Learn from Tiger Woods =-
By chance, the Campbell family met Rory at a local gas station afterwards and that’s when Campbell suggested to his daughter Maggie that she take advantage of this very opportune situation.
“(After the round), my wife picked the three of us up and we headed toward Louisville on Shelbyville Rd. to fill up the gas tank and get dinner. As we pulled into the Thornton’s just down from Valhalla, I noticed someone wearing the same shirt and hat that Rory wore today, did a double-take, and realized it was actually Rory McIlroy.”
Rory McIlroy was sitting in his courtesy car, a Mercedes-Benz SUV, finishing up a call on his phone. As he stepped to exit his car, Campbell said to his daughter, “Now is your chance.”
Wasting no time, she approached McIlroy and came away with this:
After observing the exchange between Rory and his daughter, Campbell said, “He’s the #1 golfer in the world and more importantly a fine young man. Those two don’t always go together. He could have easily ignored us and we would have understood — after all, he is trying to win a major championship. But he didn’t ignore us because he has character and recognizes the importance and his responsibility as an ambassador of the game. He took just a minute of his time to create an experience that we won’t forget.”
The next generation of golfers are upon us with the likes of Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler and it seems the lessons learned from the previous generation have produced young men who represent the class, sportsmanship and role models the PGA is proud to have on their tour.
[divider]Popular[/divider]
[new_royalslider id=”93″]
