The Holy Grail of golf accomplishments is the career Grand Slam. Five men had done it before Sunday night: Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, and Tiger Woods. Some all-time greats — Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth, most notably — have tried repeatedly and failed. Rory McIlroy looked doomed to join that crew, and even in his cathartic triumph on Sunday afternoon, he nearly gave the title away several times.
All credit goes to Justin Rose, the only man to ultimately make a serious challenge at McIlroy’s crown, and to Augusta National Golf Club itself for threatening the Northern Irishman on the second nine, where the margins are thinner than paper. McIlroy’s 86-yard wedge shot into Rae’s Creek on 13 was close to being good, but not close enough. By that same token, his 196-yard eight-iron on the 17th was so close to rolling back off the false front, but it instead settled to three feet for the birdie that ultimately got him into the playoff with Rose that he ended up winning.
It was a long-due coronation of the man who settled the debate as to the greatest golfer since Woods burst onto the scene with record-setting vengeance, a matter of “when”, not “if”.
The 35-year-old, keenly aware of the magnitude of the moment, opened his post-victory press conference by asking, “What are you all going to talk about next year?”
With the final hole in McIlroy’s Hall of Fame resumé filled, the only question is how many more majors he can win from here, and if he can become the first single-season Grand Slam winner in the Open era. Jordan Spieth came closest most recently, winning both The Masters and the U.S. Open in 2015 before finishing one stroke out of the playoff in The Open Championship at St. Andrews. Since then, only Patrick Reed (fourth at the 2018 U.S. Open) and Scottie Scheffler (tied for eighth at the 2024 PGA Championship) have even finished in the Top 10 at the year’s second major.
Who would put it past McIlroy, though? He’s playing the best golf of his career — with three wins already, including THE PLAYERS Championship, in just six events — and he knows Quail Hollow extremely well, having finished in the Top 10 there nine times, including four wins. He’s tied with Scheffler for the shortest odds to lift the Wannamaker Trophy at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Of course, it’s more likely than not that he won’t win, given the difficulty of claiming a major championship, and the emotional hangover of finally completing his lifelong dream may take the focus away from golf for the next few weeks. But Quail Hollow requires an all-around game, and McIlroy ranks in the top quartile on the PGA TOUR so far this season in all four major Strokes Gained categories. At 7,538 yards, it’s also fairly long, and he ranks third on TOUR in driving distance.
He’s already closed a major out once this season, on one of the TOUR’s most difficult courses, under some of the most immense pressure any golfer has ever felt in his career. He’s beaten back his biggest demon, and his greatest triumph makes his presence atop the leaderboard ever more feared. The burdens of McIlroy’s past collapsed on Sunday in one fell swoop. There’s no reason to believe they’ll ever rise again.
