Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar by Alan Snipnuck. Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster. 320 pages. 2026
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The author describes Rory McIlroy one of the dozen greatest golfers of all time. He tells us that the goal for the book is to provide an unvarnished answer to an old question as McIlroy enters the final act of a highly eventful career: What’s he really like?
McIlroy was barely a year old when his father gave him a set of toy golf clubs. His mother states that he was holding a golf club before he could walk. McIlroy’s parents sacrificed greatly – working multiple jobs, and sparing no expense – because their son was a prodigy.
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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? (Church Questions) by Matthew Boswell
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
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When he was seven, McIlroy began one of the foundational relationships of his life, with Michael Bannon, the young teaching pro at Holywood Golf Club in County Down, Northern Ireland. Golfer Darren Clark served as a mentor and we read about the beginning of McIlroy’s friendship with Irish golfer Shane Lowry.
After an outstanding junior career, in 2004, McIlroy signed a letter of intent to attend East Tennessee State University, but never actually attended. On February 6, 2007, the World Amateur Golf Ranking made official what most already knew, that McIlroy was the number one amateur in the world. Two days shy of his twenty-first birthday; McIlroy became the youngest Tour victor since his boyhood idol Tiger Woods in 1996. Later that year, he would become the number one golfer in the world. At twenty-five, McIlroy would be three-quarters of the way to a career Grand Slam. But then he would go through about eleven long years of disappointments after winning the 2014 PGA and Open Championships before he completed the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters tournament, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, and Gary Player as the only players to win the career Grand Slam.
The author writes that as much as his clubhead speed, McIlroy’s resilience has been the defining characteristic of his professional career. He writes about the many heartbreaks on the course that McIlroy endured on the way to the career Grand Slam.
The book covers McIlroy’s romantic life from Holly Sweeney, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki to PGA employee Erica Stoll, who has been his wife since 2017, though they went through a difficult time in 2025.
McIlroy, along with Tiger Woods were the leading voices and faces of the PGA Tour against LIV Golf. They were also founders of the new TGL (Tomorrow’s Golf League).
A few days after this book was published, the now 37-year-old McIlroy won the 2026 Masters Tournament, his sixth major championship. He has now spent nearly eight hundred consecutive weeks in the top twenty of the World Ranking, dating to March 2012.
This was an enjoyable, mostly positive look at McIlroy. The book does include adult language sprinkled throughout, usually when the author is quoting someone.
What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? (Church Questions) by Matthew Boswell. Crossway. 48 pages. 2025
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The latest book in the Church Question series of booklets is from pastor and hymn writer (“His Mercy is More”), Matt Boswell. He writes that for some Christians singing is their least favorite part of corporate worship. He asks whether the reader sees congregational singing as a gift to enjoy or a burden to bear?
He tells us that no matter what frustrations you may have with your church’s music, he hopes that this short booklet will help you navigate those challenges and point you to some of the glorious reasons you have to lift your voice in song during worship. The goal of the booklet is to help you understand the Bible’s vision for what it looks like for God’s people to sing together.
Boswell uses Psalm 96: 1-3 as his “home base” for the book. In that psalm, David gives three reasons why Christians sing together: singing is an act of worshiping God, an act of discipling others, and ultimately an act of witnessing to the world. The author tells us that Psalm 96 introduces us to two important truths we need to remember if we’re struggling with the music in our churches. First, God commands singing. Second, he commands singing because church music is ultimately about worshiping him, not meeting our preferences.
Boswell tells us that we sing as an act of obedience. We sing because our singing pleases God. He tells us that singing isn’t a divine suggestion; it is a holy commandment. And like all of God’s commands, it’s not a burden to weigh us down but a law that lifts us up.
The author tells us that sing isn’t ultimately about us. It’s ultimately about extolling God for his glory. He tells us that if you don’t like your church’s music, that’s okay. It’s not really for you. It’s a vehicle for you to bless God’s name with other redeemed sinners. We don’t sing because we like the music, because it’s led particularly well, or because it fits our style. We sing because it’s appropriate to respond to fresh grace with fresh songs.
In response to what you should do if you don’t like your church’s music, Boswell tells us to sing anyway. He tells us to remember that we aren’t singing for ourselves, we are singing for God.
Boswell tells us that congregational singing is an act of worship offered to the living God by a group of fellow believers who participate together in Christ by faith. When we gather to sing, we’re not soloists but choir members who have responded to God’s own invitation to join with all the earth in praise. Christian singing isn’t a private act for personal enjoyment. It’s an act of service.
Boswell tells us that engaging in the work of congregational singing is one way every believer builds up the body of Christ. Not everyone preaches. We don’t all pray or publicly read Scripture. But each of us who is in Christ can have an effective ministry edifying the whole church through song.
The direction of our singing is vertical and horizontal; it’s both Godward and manward. As we extol God for his mercy, we are at the same time telling one another of the wondrous things that God has done. The goal of congregational singing is to glorify God by encouraging one another in song.
This booklet is helpful in discussing the purpose of congregational singing.
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
- My Book Reviews. Enjoy more than 570 of my book reviews on Goodreads. Read my recent reviews of How to Get a Return on Failure: Fail Smarter—Return Stronger by John Maxwell and Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar by Alan Shipnuck.
BOOK CLUB – Won’t you read along with us?
What Is Wrong with the World?: The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
Please join us in reading the first book of Tim Keller’s that has been released since his death in 2023.
From the Amazon description:
“During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title’s pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world’s pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a “bad” thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for.”
This week, we look at Chapter 1: Sin as Predator. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:
- The problem is not only that there is sin in the human heart—though, as the rest of the Bible makes clear, human sin is the primary reason for the world’s condition—but also that we don’t, and sometimes won’t, recognize or acknowledge the power of sin. We underestimate it.
- There’s nothing more important for us than understanding sin’s true nature.
- We are told three things about sin in that one sentence. First, we are told that sin hides itself. It crouches. Second, we are told that sin is tremendously powerful. It wants nothing more than to have us. Third—and this is implicit in the sentence—we have hope against it. We must rule over it, master it. In one sentence, God tells us about the hiddenness of sin, the power of sin, and that there’s a hope to defeat sin.
- Cain’s problem is that he is halfhearted, not wholehearted. That posture is tremendously common in the average churchgoer today.
- Our own worst sins look much smaller to us than they do to anyone else.
- All of us need people who can see in us what we cannot see in ourselves. This is crucial because if we leave our sins unaddressed, they will grow larger than we could ever imagine.
- After you’ve done a sin, the sin does you. Sin is not done with you after you’re done with it. When you sin, it doesn’t just pass away; it takes on a life of its own and wants to devour you.
- Our sins are not done with us when we’re done with them. They will stop at nothing to overtake us.
