Johnson Wagner thinks Rory McIlroy will do something at the PGA Championship which nobody has done since Tiger Woods in 2000

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The question Rory McIlroy is now facing off the back of his dramatic victory at The Masters is whether his triumph at Augusta National opens the floodgates for a raft of future major wins.

It is hard to imagine just what Rory McIlroy felt as he collapsed on the spot in which he had secured sporting immortality on Sunday at The Masters. McIlroy had waited 11 years to win another major, but that pressure has reached another level whenever he has driven down Magnolia Lane.

McIlroy has been a Masters win away from completing the career grand slam since 2014. With that, it seems that the pressure has become too much for him at times. It seems entirely possible that the weight of expectation forced the inexplicable lip-out on 16 on Sunday at Pinehurst last year.

With that burden now gone, McIlroy has a chance to get back to being the player who looked destined to reach double digits for major wins after winning his fourth as a 25-year-old.

Rory McIlroy backed to emulate Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship after his Masters win

It is no surprise that some expect McIlroy to win the PGA Championship. Quail Hollow has been a particularly happy hunting ground for the 35-year-old over the years, with four victories at the course so far.

But Johnson Wagner has taken it a step further. Speaking on The Wagyu Filet Show, Wagner backed McIlroy to completely leave the field behind.

“I think we are going to see a Rory which is more like 2011 Congressional Rory, where he just blows away a couple of majors because he has the freedom. He needs to continue to work with Bob Rotella and have the steely eyed focus he had, but I think he may just fall into a couple of majors in the next year and a half. There was so much weight on him that was off that he is going to start playing like he was when he first started playing,” he said.

“He won four majors so quickly. In a three year span he won four majors. It was the weight of winning at Augusta which was crushing him for so long, and now that weight is gone. I think he is going to come into Quail Hollow and it’s going to be historic. It stinks, because I really want Jordan Spieth to win at Quail because I think it would be incredible for him to complete the career grand slam. Could you imagine in back to back majors! But it’s not going to happen because Rory McIlroy is going to win by double digits. He is.”

Tiger Woods amongst four players to win a major by 10 or more shots

The last male player to win a major by 10 shots or more is Tiger Woods, with his triumph at Pebble Beach in 2000 seeing him finish 15 shots clear of anyone else. To this day, it remains the largest winning margin in major championship history.

Remarkably, Woods is the only player to achieve that feat since the end of the 19th century. And he has done it on two occasions, having won his first major – the 1997 Masters – by 12.

It is therefore, a huge statement to back McIlroy to win by 10 or more at Quail Hollow. You would expect that McIlroy will be more than content if the gap is one.