Irish golf ace Rory McIlroy may be called the eighth best golfer in the world right now but he's a first class ambassador for children.

On Sunday McIlroy was appointed as a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador. As part of his new duties, McIlroy will help fundraise and advocate in support of UNICEF's global mission to help reduce the number of daily preventable deaths of children from 22,000 to 0.

"I've known about UNICEF for a long time. I'm thrilled to become an ambassador. I'm looking forward to working with UNICEF, making a field visit and learning as much as I can so I can help children around the world," the golfer said in a statement.