Beautiful, Literary Writing About Golf on Deadline

Here’s a great piece of sports writing done at a lightning-fast clip. Shane Ryan at Golf Digest puts the reader in his head and on the grounds at Pinehurst No. 2, where Rory McIlory, one of the best (and most popular) golfers on the planet, missed two very short putts in the final holes of the U.S. Open that obliterated his chances of 1) winning and then 2) forcing a playoff.

Rory McIlroy and the newest shade of heartbreak

The four-time major champion’s U.S. Open loss was even more painful viewed up close.

GolfDigestShane Ryan

It would be beautiful writing if he’d taken a few days to publish it, but its immediacy is what elevates it to even greater heights.

It’s not just a tick-tock of what happened, though it has that flavor, too. It’s more cerebral than that; it’s philosophical almost.

It wrestles with what Rory must have been thinking as much as it wrestles with what we, the fans, were thinking. What he, the golf writer, was thinking.

It just works on so many levels, and the writing is stunning. File immediately in: Things I Wish I’d Written.