McIlroy on verge of career Grand Slam at Masters

A major championship and green jacket isn’t all that’s on the line this week for Rory McIlroy in the 79th Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

Golf immortality awaits.

At just 25, McIlroy can become only the sixth player to achieve the career Grand Slam as it is currently constituted with the four professional majors.

“A place in history is the big thing for me,” McIlroy said. “When you get on that list you’re getting into the pinnacle of the sport.”

McIlroy is the odds-on favorite to win, and can become just the third player in history to win three pro majors in succession, joining Tiger Woods in 2000 and Ben Hogan in 1953.

When we last visited the major championship rotation last August, McIlroy was winning his second PGA Championship at Valhalla following a victory in the British Open at Royal Liverpool.

As Woods, a four-time Masters winner and 14-time major champion, has stolen some of the headlines with his return from a two-month break this week, McIlroy can further cement his claim to being the world’s most dominant player since Woods last won a major in 2008.

He can also become the second-youngest player behind Woods to complete the career slam, and can do it where Woods made his big splash in golf with a 12-stroke victory for his first major at the age of 21 in 1997.

“My mind wanders to winning this tournament and thinking what it would be like and what it would mean,” McIlroy said.

“Once I won my first major in 2011, I started to believe that I could go on to achieve bigger and better things than just being a tour pro and making a living at the game. I felt like I could set my goals a little higher and that's what I've done, and worked hard to achieve them. All of a sudden, I'm here and have a great opportunity to do what not many people in golf have done.”

Gene Sarazen was the first to win the career Grand Slam in 1935, followed by Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods – the latter two have rounded the bases three times each.

The difficulty of the achievement is best represented by the players who have failed to accomplish it.

Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson never won the PGA Championship. Sam Snead, the PGA Tour's leader in career wins, never won the U.S. Open. Lee Trevino won three of the majors twice apiece, but never finished better than 10th at Augusta National. Nick Faldo won six majors, but could muster only runner-up finishes in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

McIlroy is paired in the first two rounds with three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, the other player who has a chance to complete the career Grand Slam this year, with his only omission being the U.S. Open.

“There is an interview now around with me when I was 7 or 8, saying I wanted to win all the majors and be the best golfer in the world,” McIlroy said last month. “It is what I have always wanted to do, but just as me. I never wanted to break records. I never looked at someone and said, ‘I want to do that.’ This was just what I wanted to do – win the biggest tournaments in the world and be the best golfer in the world.”

The term "Grand Slam" was first applied to Bobby Jones’ achievement of winning the four major golf events in 1930, at the time the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Open and British Amateur.

Hogan won the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in 1953, but was unable to return from Europe in time to participate in the PGA Championship.

Woods won the last three in succession in 2000 and the 2001 Masters to complete the “Tiger Slam” and be the only player to hold all four concurrently.

McIlroy’s record at Augusta National isn’t bad, but it is far below his standards. A tie for eighth last year at even par is his only top 10 in six appearances. He has three additional top-25 finishes and missed the cut in 2010.

In his past five Masters, he has recorded a score of 77 or worse once per tournament.

“It hasn't even been that it's been a bad 18 holes, it's just been a bad nine holes, a stretch of nine holes where it sort of got away from me,” McIlroy said. “You've got the obvious opportunities out here to make birdies and you've got the obvious holes where you try and take your par and you try and avoid the big number, and that's what I'll be trying to do this week.”

He did have a lead after each of the first three Masters rounds in 2011 but imploded around the turn and shot a final-round 80 to tumble to 15th.

“That's the biggest thing I've learned, just try and get it out of your head where you are and what it means and just try to execute your shots like you normally do,” McIlroy said.

In McIlroy’s last 15 worldwide starts, the world’s top-ranked player has finished first or second eight times, including a win earlier this year in Dubai.

Keys for McIlroy this week will likely be his play on the par-5s and his putting, which is always a key considering his strong ball-striking. He played the par-5s even par last year and finished eight strokes behind champion Bubba Watson, who played them 8 under.

Three years he has been in the top three in greens in regulation at Augusta, but he has averaged less than 29.5 putts per round to rank in the top 25 in that category just once.

“Looking at the course, it's the one [major venue] that should set up the best for me just with my ball flight and being comfortable off the tee here, especially being able to turn the ball over from right‑to‑left and all that,” McIlroy said. “If I can play the way I know I can around here and just have a good week on the greens, then there's no reason why I shouldn't have a good chance.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 7:59 PM with the headline "McIlroy on verge of career Grand Slam at Masters."