McIlroy narrowly failed to win this weekend’s World Golf Championship at Tucson, Arizona, making it all the way to the final, only to lose to Hunter Mahan of the United States.
The Mid-Ulster MLA said: “It’s hard to imagine a better ambassador for the whole of the people of Northern Ireland than Rory. For the last five days, he has literally flown the flag for us, as our symbol appeared on the Leaderboard at the Ritz-Carlton Club, on the television graphics, as well as on the newspapers and internet websites. But what are we doing for him?
“Who can estimate the value of what Rory is doing in terms of marketing Northern Ireland? The equivalent in paid-for advertising must be well into the hundreds of millions by now. In the last four months, Rory has made headlines in China, Abu Dhabi, the USA, all the international economies the NI Executive is targeting to help grow our private sector with Foreign Direct Investment and tourism.
“It makes it all the more inexplicable that the NI Executive or one of its major agencies was not in Arizona, to support him and maximise the opportunity to promote Northern Ireland.