AUGUSTA (US), April 14: Rory McIlroy went from becoming the sixth player with the career Grand Slam to only the fourth player to win the Masters two years in a row. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the only other players to occupy both clubs.
Elite company, indeed.
If joining the first group wasn’t difficult enough for McIlroy — 11 years of trying to get the final leg of the Grand Slam — then winning his second Masters green jacket was a clear reminder of how hard it was to get there.
“I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the Grand Slam,” McIlroy said. “And then this year I realized it’s just really difficult to win the Masters.”
So where does he go from here?
McIlroy went into a funk last year after fulfilling a lifelong dream. He became irritated by endless questions about what would motivate him, which mountain was next to scale, when all he wanted to do was soak it all in. He finally got back on track at the Irish Open.
That doesn’t sound like it will be a problem this time around.
“I felt like the Grand Slam was the destination, and I realized it wasn’t,” McIlroy said after ending another wild Sunday afternoon at Augusta National with a one-shot win over Scottie Scheffler.
“I just won my sixth major, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot with my game and my body,” he said. “I don’t want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just … I don’t want to say a stop on the journey, it’s just part of the journey.”
Trying to put a number on how many majors he will win began long before he won his first Masters, much less the second one. McIlroy won his first major in the 2011 US Open at Congressional by shattering the 72-hole scoring record at 268.
That prompted Padraig Harrington to say, “If you’re going to talk about someone challenging Jack’s record, there’s your man.”
Nicklaus has the gold standard of 18 majors. Woods is next at 15. McIlroy is at six, tied with Nick Faldo, Lee Trevino and Phil Mickelson. (AP)
