Fatherly Faith Pays Off

Early this morning Rory McIlroy held off the fast finishing Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler to win the British Open Championship by just 2 strokes.

The win not only nets him a cool £975,000 but he also joins Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to have won three of the four major titles by the time they were 25.
But it is not only Rory who is profiting from this win. It turns out that Gerry McIlroy, Rory's father, also stands to walk away with a reported £100,000. 

How did he do this you ask?

 He had amazing, if not insane faith in his then 15 year old son who showed some talent with stick in hand. So certain was Gerry that this talent would eventuate into something remarkable he approached a local bookmaker and put £200 on Rory to win the British Open before he turned 26 at odds of 500/1.  He also convinced two friends to do the same who reportedly will share £80,000 worth of winnings between them. 

Until this year Rory had had very little success at the Open, finishing within the top 25 just once since 2007. But all that is history now. Surely big celebrations will be shared with his family and friends tonight and there will definitely be a few extra bottles of bubbly floating around!