Is Rory McIlroy the same person?
The easy answer is no, but McIlroy maintains yes.
When that final putt dropped on the 18th hole at Augusta National, the Sunday of the Masters, the newly minted Green Jacketed Ulsterman looked different to the golfing public.
Perhaps it was because he no longer had a monkey on his back, or maybe because we no longer had to endure the endless questions about McIlroy winning another major, but specifically the Masters.
And even if the Career Grand Slam is not usually a focus, it was for McIlroy.
Becoming the sixth player to enter the Career Grand Slam Club, McIlroy admitted he had reached the pinnacle of his career at 35.
Now, with a birthday on May 4, McIlroy, at 36, sees nothing, except for his age, that is different.
“I turn up and try to have the same attitude and the same approach to each and every tournament and try to get the best out of myself,” McIlroy said. “Some weeks that results in wins, and some weeks it doesn’t.”
Yet, McIlroy has done everything he wanted to do in the game, having dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors.
Now he views any additional accomplishments as a bonus, as he is now playing with “house money.”
“I feel like I sort of burdened myself with the Career Grand Slam stuff, and I want to enjoy this,” McIlroy said of being untethered. “I want to enjoy what I’ve achieved, and I want to enjoy the last decade or whatever of my career, and I don’t want to burden myself by numbers or statistics. I just want to go and try to play the best golf I can.”
What this new attitude will bring is unclear, but McIlroy has been adaptable in most situations over his career, and he views this ability as part of his maturity as a player.
McIlroy believes that early in his career, wet conditions, like those he faced at Congressional to win the U.S. Open in 2011, favored him more.
But last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst was hard and fast, and again McIlroy believed the hard and firm conditions favored him as well.
“I believe that any conditions that we play in, I have the abilities, and I have the skill set to excel,” McIlroy said on the eve of the PGA Championship.
With crazy success that included four wins at Quail Hollow starting in 2010 and his last coming in 2024, McIlroy is the undisputed leader before the gun goes off on Thursday morning.
“It’s not as if I don’t know this place,” McIlroy said about a restrictive warmup due to the rain. “I think it’s a matter of just making sure that every part of the game feels in a good spot, and yeah, because we all know this golf course so well, it’s not as if you’re going to glean anything new from a strategy perspective, it’s just a matter of stepping up and hitting the golf shots when the gun goes on Thursday.”
Win or lose, McIlroy will leave Charlotte knowing that his career is fundamentally set in his mind. If he wins, it will add to his legacy. If he loses, he will focus on the next major, the U.S. Open at Oakmont.
Either way, after the last putt dropped at Augusta, McIlroy has started a second career with different goals and dreams.
“Look, everyone needs to have goals and dreams, and I’ve been able to do something that I dreamed of for a long time,” McIlroy said. “I’m still going to set myself goals. I’m still going to try to achieve certain things. But I sit here knowing that that very well could be the highlight of my career.”
Related: PGA Ducks Tariff Discussion With U.S. Government
Related: Captain Bradley Invited DeChambeau and Koepka to Ryder Cup Dinner
Read the full article here
