Many golf fans will have been surprised by just how disappointing Rory McIlroy’s form has been since he won The Masters and completed the career grand slam.
While some suspected that Rory McIlroy may need some time to come to terms with completing the career grand slam, plenty thought that winning The Masters would see the shackles removed and make him a monster in the majors again.
And Quail Hollow looked to be the perfect venue for the PGA Championship given that he has won at the course four times previously. McIlroy however, was never a factor on Sunday having done well just to make the cut.
He did miss the cut at the RBC Canadian Open having decided against playing in The Memorial Tournament. But comments McIlroy made ahead of teeing it up at TPC Toronto caught some by surprise.
Rory McIlroy is searching for motivation after winning The Masters and completing the career grand slam
McIlroy admitted finding it tough to practice for several hours in the weeks since The Masters. And his form since then has shown that, with no top 10s in his last three events.
It is completely understandable. As much as McIlroy now wants to win an Olympic gold medal and an away Ryder Cup, he will have known for more than a decade that the key factor in deciding his legacy was whether he would ever get the chance to slip on a green jacket at Augusta National.
The jubilation of finally winning The Masters will have also come with a sense of ‘what happens now?’
There is not a chance that winning the Truist Championship would have scratched the same itch. Even triumphing at the PGA Championship would surely not have been as satisfying as when his ball disappeared in the 18th hole during his playoff with Justin Rose the previous month.
The problem is that everyone else is now asking what happens next for McIlroy. The 36-year-old appears to have realised that there will only be one first time winning at The Masters. Meanwhile, he will be one of the oldest major champions in history if he is to get the feeling of waiting another 11 years to win his next major.
But perhaps there is reason for McIlroy to take encouragement from one of the only players who knows what winning all four of the current majors feels like.
The surprising comments Gary Player made after completing the career grand slam in 1965
Gary Player was the third golfer to join the exclusive club. He completed the career grand slam at the 1965 US Open having won The Open Championship in 1959, The Masters in 1961 and the PGA Championship in 1962.
Player’s work-rate continues to put most to shame as his 90th birthday approaches. But it turns out it was not always that way.
In fact, ahead of the 1966 US Open – the tournament where Player was the defending champion – the South African admitted that he had extremely low expectations for the week.
“I just haven’t been playing enough golf,” he said, as reported by Sports Illustrated. “I don’t have the desire I had last year. I haven’t played a tournament since the Memphis Open, and the less you play the less you care.”
Player had not registered a single top 10 in the majors after winning the US Open the previous year. That run would end at the 1966 Open Championship where he would finish tied for fourth at Muirfield.
In fact, Player would not add to his major tally in 1966 or 1967. But that did change at The Open in 1968 as he won by two.
Ultimately, Player would win five more majors after completing the career grand slam to take his tally to nine. There were nearly 13 years between his victories at the 1965 US Open and the 1978 Masters – the final major win of his career.
McIlroy is a few years older than Player was when he completed the career grand slam. But he can take so much encouragement that the hunger is going to come back at some point in the coming years.
Player did not win on the PGA Tour between his fourth and fifth major wins. But he would go on to end his career with nine major titles.
Clearly, it is far too soon to write McIlroy off, despite the existential questions he is potentially asking himself right now.
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