Life has changed an awful lot since US Open:Rory

London: Northern Ireland golfer Rory McIlroy has said that his life has changed “an awful lot” since the day he won the US Open in June.

McIlroy won the US Open, his first major, when he finished with a record score of 16-under-par on his way to an eight-shot victory on June 19. The victory lifted the 22-year-old’s position in the Official World Golf Ranking to a career high of number four.“My life has changed an awful lot over the last three months and there are moments when you think to yourself, ‘What on earth is happening here, what is going on?’ But being the best golfer in the world is what I always wanted to be,” a leading daily quoted McIlroy, as saying. “Yes there are times when you’re sitting in a restaurant and thinking it would be nice to go back to the days when people didn’t want to have their photograph taken with you, but that’s fine, I really don’t mind that. If they weren’t interested it would mean I was going backwards and that really would be the time to worry,” he added. McIlroy further said that he had to deploy security guards at his house to keep all the fans away. “I didn’t expect that, and it isn’t very nice. It is something I had to put in place, I’m afraid. It’s tough, but it is just the world we live in, unfortunately,” he added. McIlroy, the youngest US Open winner since Bobby Jones in 1923, has been cited as the most exciting young prospect in golf and having the potential to become one of the highest earners in sports in terms of endorsements. ANI