Rory – the brand

We all know that Rory has earned a bob or two by being more than quite good at golf, but according to the Irish Examiner, he’s now worth almost half a billion dollars.

OK. So he’s got a rather tasty Nike deal, which is reportedly worth $250 million over a ten-year period. That’s a good start. And then there’s Bose, EA Sports and Omega involved as well.

You can add into that the fact that he’s already earned $12 million in actual winnings for what he does best. But where does his $422.13 million book value come from?

Apparently this figure comes from the intangible assets connected to his personal brand.

McIlroy was asked recently if he had a plan for what he would do with the nearly $10 million if he won the Race to Dubai.

"No," he said. "Luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore. So, no. I mean it's not a -- it will go in the bank and if I want to buy something nice, I will. It's not really anything that -- I mean like it's nice to think that you could win $10 million dollars this week, but that's not what excites me."

We say, well-done Rory, and keep on keeping on. The money bit is sorted now, so you can forget about that and focus on the stuff that really counts – winning majors.

Still, it must be nice to know that you’ve got the mortgage covered, and a bit set aside for a rainy day.