Rory McIlroy’s former coach predicts whether he will ever win the Masters at Augusta in his career

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It’s become one of golf’s most talked about points in recent years. Will Rory McIlroy ever win that elusive fifth major?

McIlroy stormed his way to four by 2014 but is now in the midst of a dry spell that’s over a decade now as the frustration continues to set in.

As we all know, McIlroy endured the ultimate heartache this year at the US Open as two putts inside four feet cost him the title to Bryson DeChambeau.

A miserable display at The Open last weekend had McIlroy already on the beach before he’d even completed round two.

Questions remain, then, over whether McIlroy will ever quite get over the line.

• READ MORE: Rory McIlroy admits he’s just suffered with the same problem he had at Augusta and it needs sorting

It’s not just winning any major either. There is so much pressure on him to win The Masters and complete a career grand slam that the weight on his shoulders is massive.

Of course, one man who knows McIlroy’s game inside out is former coach and mentor, Pete Cowen.

Cowen has coached some of the best to ever do it and was particularly close to McIlroy while he was successful and he’s now been speaking about just whether that 5th major is coming.

Pete Cowen makes major prediction involving Rory McIlroy

Speaking in an interview for Bunkered, Cowen was pressed on whether he thinks McIlroy will indeed win another major.

And while Cowen believes the answer is a yes, it could all come down to timing.

“If I had to put money on it, I’d say yes, but golf’s a funny game,” Cowen says. 

“You get a good break and all of a sudden you could win two or three in a row like Xander, but it gets harder. He wins big tournaments in any case.

‘It’s a smaller stage. As the stage gets higher, the more difficult and the more stage fright you get. You’ve got to look at it and say when the stage gets that high, like on a major because that’s the highest stage he can hit, sometimes you get a bit of stage fright. Everybody does.

“Some players can put the blinkers on all the way round for five hours but a lot of people can’t put the blinkers on. You’ve got to win again, you’ve got to restart.”

Adding a comment specifically on Augusta and The Masters, Cowen made a telling observation.

“Everybody says Augusta suits him because he hits a draw but Nicklaus won six times there and he’s a fader.”

McIlroy will hope to keep up some sort of form as the season draws to a close and he has a big chance to go down in history if he can win gold at the Olympics for Ireland.