Timothy M. Gay writes that four-time major champion Rory McIlroy is “golf’s ageless Opie Taylor,” a freckled superstar whose boyish charm transcends national boundaries and enlivens the game. His seemingly effortless swing is so powerful that Tiger Woods is teaching his own son to mimic Rory’s action.

But a charismatic persona and a pretty swing don’t necessarily translate into winning major championships. Over the past decade, Rory has had his heart ripped out as he’s failed to win another major and fallen short of achieving the career Grand Slam. He’s also become a lightning rod, getting into a profanity-laced smackdown at the ’23 Ryder Cup and, after his betrayal by PGA Tour brass, causing head-scratching confusion by going from an impassioned opponent of a deal with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf to an outspoken proponent.

His backtrack on LIV fits a disquieting pattern, Gay reveals, of Rory’s propensity to flip-flop on key principles and people. McIlroy is from Northern Ireland, a geopolitical anomaly where religion and patriotism have been used as bloody cudgels for much of the past century. Both sides of his family were battered by the North’s sectarian Troubles—ugly realities that McIlroy has been loath to acknowledge.

Rory is, Gay believes, a man essentially without a country, which might explain why he’s become so obsessed with the Ryder Cup. Gay argues that McIlroy has, in effect, invented his own fiefdom, which the author has dubbed “RORY LAND.”