Golf world braces for McIlroy court fight

Rory McIlroy spent the past few days doing what he does best – winning. The world number one golfer clinched his second Dubai Desert Classic at the weekend in the hot and manicured greens of the Gulf. For the next few days, though, his surroundings will be chilly Dublin, and the grand if rather grey interior of the Irish High Court.

Mr McIlroy, the 25 year-old Northern Irishman who has replaced Tiger Woods as the golfing world’s superstar, has had a bitter falling-out with Horizon Sports Management, his former agents. He joined them in late 2011, and walked away 18 months later, arguing that the terms of his contract were “unconscionable”, and took unfair advantage of his youth and naivety.

He is suing Horizon in the High Court, claiming among other things that his contract compared unfavourably with others in their stable, including his friend and fellow Northern Irish golf champion, Graeme McDowell. Horizon is counter-claiming for unpaid commissions and fees. Attempts at arbitration, encouraged by an Irish judge, have failed, and the case is due to begin on Tuesday, barring a last-minute settlement.

It is a legal showdown the sedate world of golf wishes was not happening. It offers the rare prospect of a peek into the finances and perhaps the lifestyle of a sports star. It promises to reveal the secrets of one of the most lucrative sponsorships in professional sport. At stake are the reputations of a popular boy-next-door sportsman, and a start-up sports agency that was building its business around him.

Fallings-out between sports stars and their agents are not uncommon, but they tend to be in the more aggressive arenas of football or boxing. Says Eamon Lynch, editor of Golf.com in New York: “Within the broader golf world there’s a widespread sense of surprise that it hasn’t yet been resolved, mainly because the public airing of grievances is very rare in this game.”

The public airing of grievances is very rare in this game

A spokeswoman for Mr McIlroy said he had neither spoken nor given interviews specifically about the court case. However, speaking to golf correspondents in Dubai last week, he betrayed a certain emotion about the weight of it on his shoulders, and about the prospect of taking the witness stand. “I just have to get up there and tell the truth. I mean, that’s all I need to do,” he said.

One aspect of the case between Mr McIlroy and Horizon is a sponsorship deal worth a reported $100m that the agency negotiated for its client with Nike. According to one person familiar with the legal case, it may be the third biggest endorsement contract Nike has signed with a sporting figure. Horizon also secured sponsorship deals with Santander, Omega and Bose.

The dispute, according to some people familiar with the case, is in part the result of the desire of Mr McIlroy’s entourage, led by his father Gerry, to manage his financial affairs independently now that he has become one of the game’s highest earners. The wonder, they say, is that the publicity it has generated – with more sure to follow – has not affected Mr McIlroy’s game.

His three-shot win in Dubai at the weekend was as effortless as usual. Last year he won two “majors”, as the top four competitions in golf are known, and was a key player in the victorious European Ryder Cup team.

“Rory hasn’t been around long enough to have anything to hide,” says the golf writer Dermot Gilleece. “The fact that he is prepared to lay everything bare in the courtroom tells me he has nothing to hide.”