It was as predictable as it was swift, but Rory McIlroy’s Career Grand Slam-completing victory at The Masters was met with widespread predictions that the real grand slam – winning all four majors in a calendar year – could follow.
With the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow – one of McIlroy’s favourite stomping grounds – in mid-May, it’s conceivable that he could have two of the four legs completed by the time the US Open at Oakmont comes around, but Paul McGinley thinks that talk of a Grand Slam is premature and believes that the level of competition McIlroy is going to face means that there are no guarantees that he’ll even add to his major haul, never mind win them all over the next four months.
“I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion he wins another one this year,” the former Ryder Cup captain told SportsBoom.
“There’s competition, of course there is. I mean, Scottie Scheffler is going to get better as the season goes on. Xander’s going to get better as the season goes on.”
But The Masters and Augusta National had long been Rory’s White Whale, and McGinley believes that the pressure will be reduced when he arrives on site for the next major championship, with the US Open – an event he’s been runner-up in two years in a row, before an emotional homecoming to Royal Portrush for the 153rd Open Championship in July – an event where he’ll share the spotlight with 2019 winner Shane Lowry.
“Rory is freed up now,” McGinley added. “You know, it’s been a big, big monkey on his back, and you know the criticism that he’s got over the years has been quite relentless at times.
“Nobody gets more heat than he does, so I think he will feel relieved and a freedom mentally, which means he can perform at his best physically.
“When he went down to his knees it was really the human story of what he did there, of the bouncing back from not winning in regulation play and of not winning Majors and the Masters for those years.
“And we are thankful and grateful he did – I’m delighted, because the game needed that kind of story.
“The game needed a superstar, something big to happen in it, and a Grand Slam winner is something big.”
Leave a comment