Dubai: Rory McIlroy would become only the sixth golfer to secure a career Grand Slam — the act of winning all four Majors at least once — if he were to win this weekend’s Masters tournament in Augusta.
Not only would the world number one join the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen, but the Northern Irishman would also become only the third player to have completed the Grand Slam by the age of 25, after Woods and Nicklaus.
“There’s something special that I can achieve going into Augusta this year,” said McIlroy, who faces his first opportunity to complete the quadruple after last year adding the Open Championship and a second PGA Championship to his 2011 US Open win.
“To put my name among those players that have won a career slam — you’re a complete player if you can win every Major because they’re on different golf courses, they’re different tests and played in different conditions.
“There aren’t many guys to have done it in history so to put my name up there would be awesome. It would be just incredible.
“I feel the sense of what can be achieved but I can’t think about that. I just have to think about playing the best that I can. If I can do that, hopefully at the end of the week my scores add up to a shot lower than anyone else’s.”
If he is to add an elusive green jacket to his wardrobe, McIlroy will have to bury the ghosts of 2011, when he blew a four-shot lead after carding an 80 on his final round at Augusta.
“I learned so much about myself and what I needed to do the next time I got into that position,” he said of that career low point.
“If I had not had the whole unravelling, if I had just made a couple of bogeys coming down the stretch and lost by one, I would not have learned as much.
“Luckily, it did not take me long to get into a position like it again when I was leading a Major and I was able to get over the line quite comfortably.
“It was a huge learning curve for me and I needed it, and thankfully I have been able to move on to bigger and better things.
“Looking back on what happened in 2011, it doesn’t seem as bad when you have four Majors on your mantelpiece.”
Even if he doesn’t achieve the Grand Slam this year, McIlroy implies that time is on his side, and that the Masters is a tournament that he has got to grips with.
“If I was to look back as a 60-year-old at my career and had not won a green jacket, I would be very disappointed,” he said.
“It is the only one left and it is a course I feel I can do very well at. I feel I could win multiple times, but getting that first one is the most important thing.”
Darren Clarke, Europe’s 2016 Ryder Cup captain, echoes the view that the Masters is an inevitable addition to the youngster’s trophy cabinet, easing some of the pressure on his fellow Ulsterman.
“If he doesn’t win it this time, he’ll win it next time,” said Clarke, who won The Open in 2011. “And if he doesn’t win it then, he’ll win it the time after that. His game is ideally suited to Augusta, a high soft draw and, as we’ve all seen, he’s got every shot in the bag. So there’s no reason why he’s not going to win there, sooner rather than later.”
Alleviating some of the spotlight on McIlroy will be the return of world No. 111 Tiger Woods, who is back in action after a nine-week injury lay-off.
The 14-time Major winner is just four titles away from Jack Nicklaus’ record all-time record, but has crumbled after the breakdown of his marriage, loss of form and injury, to go almost 2,500 days without a Major victory.
Colin Montgomerie, who has finished second in Majors five times without winning one, questioned whether Woods would ever win a tournament again, let alone a Major. Nevertheless all eyes will be back on Woods to see if he can pull off an unlikely comeback.
“Never mind a Major, can he win another event ever again?” asked Montgomerie. “He hasn’t entered Augusta to make up the numbers, I guarantee that. And he will be so determined to contend here and prove to himself more than anyone that he can still do this.
“I would like to think there’s wins in Tiger yet. But what is against Tiger is that the standard of Major golf now is incredible. So Tiger hasn’t just got to get back to the levels he was at. He has to get back, or forward, to the levels that have now been put in place by the No. 1 player in the world, Rory McIlroy.
“Rory’s the favourite,” added Montgomerie. “But when you think of Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Henrik Stenson, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson, there’s a lot of good golf behind him. The baton has been taken up in a very positive way by the rest, so there’s a lot of pressure on Rory McIlroy.
“Will having some of the limelight taken off him by Tiger make it slightly better? He’ll never be under the radar, but perhaps the radar isn’t as high as it might have been. But, at the same time, the moment he walks onto the first tee, Rory’s under pressure to achieve.”
