Rory McIlroy aims to put a stop to the trend of first-time Major champions taking the top titles this year.
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All that stood between the Northern Irishman and the career grand slam was a Green Jacket. Eight or more players could break par for the four days. It should have been easy.
It was a title McIlroy wanted to win, admitting he would be disappointed if he lost.
The last four majors have gone to first-time winners, including Willett’s triumph at Augusta National in April. Not a U.S. Open, or an Open Championship. “But there’s still a lot of golf, so we’ve got to try and focus on what’s ahead”.
World number two Dustin Johnson made his major breakthrough last month by winning the US Open at Oakmont. “And I think that that has really helped me to play successfully in my mid-40s without having injury and having repercussions of having practiced so long for so many decades”.
“So I think I’ve still got a good few years in me and I’m going to try and keep on developing, and if you don’t, these young guys are going to come up and take over”. I think it is realistic. “We are trying to get back down to work and knuckle down because we have got a very important second half of the season coming up”.
McIlroy knows it’s possible because he essentially did it.
Jordan Spieth, who won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015 but has had some hard moments this year since losing the Masters as a result of problems on the back nine of the final round, is further back at 14-1. For the US, eight members of the team will qualify based on simple math – a rankings system in which each player accumulates points over a two-year period, based on how much money he wins at various events. Steffen played practice rounds with Mickelson before the 2005 PGA Championship and offered advice on the nuances of the lower course.
This year has been another somewhat flat season by his lofty standards.
“There’s been times (this year) where I got a little bit of momentum and then sort of got set back a little bit”. But it’s hard. It’s hard to like stay – not stay positive. Not going to lie to you, I’ve been checking the board since to see if anyone’s got up close to me. “But I’m also starting to play good golf again”.
Getting to the level he has, the season can really be summed up in four weeks.
But McIlroy was a lot less glowing about his 2016 campaign to date, which has so far seen only one win at his home Irish Open. He bested Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington by just one stroke that year. The greens will be tricky, so a good short game is necessary for success. Anybody that thought he was due for a letdown clearly didn’t think he would register a top-10 finish at The Open Championship in his next start, which he promptly followed up with a runner-up finish at the RBC Canadian Open last week.
What McIlroy said he really appreciates is the overall feel of Quail Hollow has been preserved. “I actually had a big learning curve yesterday where I played a few holes, and I was signing so much, I probably shouldn’t have done as much on the course and then waited till after. I can hit driver off the tee the most time, and from there, if I drive it well, I feel like I have a big advantage”. “I have to play my best golf, but I definitely think it’s attainable”.
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“It set in this week when I arrived here and got my courtesy auto and got a parking spot and had a locker in the champions’ area and I opened my locker and there were no golf balls, ” said Love, whose only career major is the 1997 PGA at Winged Foot. But certainly in the last 25 years since some of the early players had some chances, Jesper Parnevik in particular.
