Rory McIlroy sets sights on completing Grand Slam at Masters

AUGUSTA – Talk of Rory McIlroy winning the Masters has become an April tradition in the golf world, and the Northern Irishman ensured that chatter will continue at Augusta National this week after putting together his best-ever start to a PGA Tour season.

Given his talent, stature and course fit, McIlroy naturally commands attention at Augusta but 2025 does feel different as wins at Pebble Beach and the Players Championship gave him two PGA Tour titles before April for the first time in his storied career.

In addition to his confidence being sky-high, some experts feel that there are other things lining up in the 35-year-old’s favour, including his main adversaries perhaps not being quite at the top of their game.

“The ones that are apt to give him his greatest challenge, you could say all are a little off their game and Rory has never been in a better spot going into the Masters,” said Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee.

“From a technical standpoint and a mental standpoint, this is Rory’s.”

A win this week would not only give McIlroy his first Major since the 2014 PGA Championship, but also put him in the company of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player as the only players to complete a career Grand Slam.

The four-time Major champion, who possesses a game considered ideally suited for Augusta National, also feels that he is a more complete player now than at any other stage of his career.

“I’m a better putter. I’m better around the greens. I can flight my ball better in the wind. My ability to shape shots both ways,” he said after the Players Championship in March.

“Really I’m managing myself more around – by no means did I have my best stuff this week, but I was still able to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That’s a huge thing.”

The veteran golfer has been in contention several times at the Masters but seems to be hampered by at least one poor round each week, most memorably in 2011.

That was the year a baby-faced McIlroy look primed to collect his first Major but famously squandered a four-shot lead in the final round with a back-nine collapse that began with a triple-bogey at the 10th hole.

Since that fateful day, McIlroy, who counts a runner-up finish in 2022 among his seven top-10 finishes at the Masters, has arrived at Augusta National facing the same question – is this finally his year?

In a bid to put an end to that question, he admitted he was trying to be more like world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler by sticking to a more disciplined approach even when his naturally aggressive tendencies tug at him on the course.

Scheffler’s 2024 Masters triumph was part of a remarkable season that included seven PGA Tour titles, an Olympic gold medal and the FedEx Cup, results that convinced McIlroy a change might do him good.

“When one of your peers has the year like he had last year, and honestly the year like he had in 2023 as well, you start to take notice at what he is doing,” McIlroy said in February after his Pebble Beach triumph.

“It takes a certain mindset to do that too... there’s impulses I have on the golf course that it looks like Scottie doesn’t have and I have to rein those in. And I have to try to be a little more disciplined about it and that’s what I’m trying to do.” REUTERS