CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rory McIlroy might win this week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club, where he has already won four times during his career, and he might capture a few more major championships before the end of his career.
But McIlroy knows that none of them will match his playoff victory at last month’s Masters, which ended his nearly 11-year drought in major championships and allowed him to become the sixth golfer to complete the career Grand Slam.
“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 Wednesday during a news conference at Quail Hollow. “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.
“That’s a very cool thing. I want to still create a lot of other highlights and high points, but I’m not sure if any other win will live up to what happened a few weeks ago.”
McIlroy has watched highlights of his final round at the Masters, in which he posted a 1-over 73 to finish 11 under, but only a few times so he’ll remember “what I was feeling and what I was seeing through my own eyes,” rather than what he sees on TV.
After making a 4-foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole to beat Justin Rose, McIlroy threw his putter in the air and put his head in his hands. He fell to his knees and wept.
“But any time I have [watched highlights], I well up,” McIlroy said. “I still feel like I want to cry. Yeah, it was an involuntary [reaction]. I’ve never felt a release like that before, and I might never feel a release like that again. That could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and it was a very cool moment.”
McIlroy, 36, is playing some of the best golf of his career. Along with collecting a green jacket at the Masters, he won PGA Tour signature events at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship.
Because of his success at Quail Hollow, McIlroy is among the favorites to win a Wanamaker Trophy, which would be the third of his career. He’ll be among the top contenders in next month’s U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh and the Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in his native Northern Ireland in July.
“I have achieved everything that I’ve wanted,” McIlroy said. “I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do in the game. I dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors. I’ve done that. Everything beyond this, for however long I decide to play the game competitively, is a bonus.”
While McIlroy admits he has thought about what it would take for him to become the best European or international golfer in history, he won’t specify what he wants to achieve in the rest of his career. He said carrying the weight of trying to complete the career Grand Slam overwhelmed him at times for more than a decade.
“I think everyone saw how hard having a north star is and being able to get over the line,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I sort of burdened myself with the career Grand Slam stuff, and I want to enjoy this. 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 [with] numbers or statistics. I just want to go and try to play the best golf I can.”
Chasing down Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 major championship victories or Tiger Woods‘ 15 seems unrealistic at this stage of McIlroy’s career. His next one would match the six won by Lee Trevino, Phil Mickelson and England’s Nick Faldo. Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Bobby Jones are among the five golfers who captured seven.
“If I can just try to get the best out of myself each and every week, I know what my abilities are; I know the golf that I can play,” McIlroy said. “And if I keep turning up and just trying to do that each and every week, especially in these four big ones a year, I know that I’ll have my chances.”
Source: espn.com