Rory McIlroy knows his career will be judged on how many major championships he wins and he hopes he can win the Masters and complete the Career Grand Slam within the next ten years.
Describing his career “on the 10th green or 11th tee” after seventeen years as a professional, McIlroy has four major championship titles to his name, but none since lifting the PGA Championship in 2014.
The Holywood man has had plenty of near misses over the last decade in the majors but insists he is still motivated to have a very successful next ten years “or a green jacket and just walk away.”
“I guess it comes down wins and season-long titles and major championships I guess,” said McIlroy when asked what a successful season feels like.
“I can’t sit here and say that last ten seasons haven’t been successful because I haven’t won a major, but at the same time, I recognize that whenever all is said and done I’m going to be judged on those tournaments a lot. Hopefully among other things as well.
“But, yeah, winning is always good, and the more wins you can get the better.”
McIlroy is making his first appearance at the Cognizant Classic – formerly Honda Classic – since 2018. It’s a tournament that has been kind to him, he ascended to world number one for the first time in 2012 when he held off Tiger Woods. His return to Palm Beach is part of a ramped up pre-Masters schedule which includes events at Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass and in Texas before his latest jaunt at Augusta National.
“I’m going to try to get through this Florida swing here this week, Bay Hill and The PLAYERS, and just really focus on those three events and try to play well.
“Then I’ve got two weeks after The PLAYERS, and I think that’s when I’ll start to turn my attention to practicing and maybe trying to hit some shots that I might need for that week.
“Then probably go to Augusta on the way to San Antonio and play for a couple days. Yeah, so I think try to do a good job of not thinking about it for the next three, then after that, it’ll be all systems go.”
McIlroy’s name was in the news on Tuesday after LIV golfer Talor Gooch claimed that if the four-time major winner did end his drought at Augusta there would be an asterisk alongside his name due to the absence of several top players on the Saudi backed tour.
McIlroy didn’t bite back as such with any returning digs towards Gooch but he did say that Chilean star Joaquin Niemann was fully deserving of an invite from Augusta last week, after trying so hard to climb back into the world’s top-50 through events outside of LIV.
“The Masters is an Invitational and they’ll invite whoever they think warrants an invite. I think to be fair to Talor, if you read the entire — the question and then the answer, it’s not as if he just came out with that.
“I feel like whoever did the interview led him down that path to say that, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt there a little bit. He just agreed with what the interviewer asked.
“At the same time, Joaquin Niemann got an invite and I played with him a few weeks ago in Dubai, and he went down to Australia and won. He was in Oman last week. He has been chasing his tail around the world to get this, play his way into August or show enough form to warrant an invite. I don’t know if the same can be said for Talor.”
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