The dust is still settling on the fact that Rory McIlroy will never have to face a question on when he will complete the career grand slam ever again, following his dramatic victory at The Masters this past week.
Rory McIlroy joked with the press after his win at Augusta National that he wanted to know what they would be asking him when he returns to the first major of the year in 2026. For the last 11 years, the Northern Irishman had been a Masters win away from completing the career grand slam.
His reaction after making the winning putt said everything. McIlroy was free of the burden which had been upon his shoulders for more than a decade.
The question now is what exactly is next for McIlroy?
What is expected of Rory McIlroy after he won The Masters and completed the career grand slam
Of course, he will be desperate to make up for lost time and win more majors. There are some incredible names just above him on the list of all-time major winners. And it is no surprise that some are tempted to suggest that double figures is not out of the question any longer.
But unless he does start to close in on winning all four majors in the same year or threaten the major tallies of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, McIlroy could easily struggle to find motivation in a number of the events which he plays.
However, speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that there is an expectation that McIlroy will keep going.
He also suggested which events he believes will be the priorities now for the 35-year-old, with a level of satisfaction achieved in the majors.
“One of the takes that I did start workshopping, and I did run this by a couple of players today, that what Rory’s accomplished, I don’t want to say it’s the end of the road, because I think the notion amongst most of us inside the game is this is only going to spur him on to bigger and better things. However, if you’re looking at this objectively, and let’s say he wins another Open Championship or another major or another FedEx Cup or another Player of the Year, I can keep going on and on, it’s just another line in the resume. I don’t want to be dismissive, but what he has accomplished now is the glass is full. There really isn’t a lot of room, you’re not going to remember him for winning another Masters two years from now, that’s not going to be what matters. You’re going to remember 2025 and everything that he went through to get to that point,” he said.
“And the only thing I could rustle my mind around that really is going to resonate with him, and I don’t think he’s going to be more motivated than anyone – Sahith Theegala said it best, he said, ‘Rory’s a sicko’, he said, ‘most of us are sickos, but he’s sort of at the top of the rung’, because he’s not going to decide, ‘okay, I’ve done what I’ve done, I can start skating now’. That’s not in his DNA. But if you look at it objectively, the only two things that I could really come up with that are really going to fire him up: one, to be a Ryder Cup captain for Europe, a winning Ryder Cup captain, and to take it a step further, I think he’d like to do it here in the United States just to rub the US’s nose in it even more just because that means so much more to a Ryder Cup captain. I think that would come with a degree of pressure that, I don’t want to say would match what he had been going through and what he ended on Sunday at Augusta, but it would be close. That, to me, is going to be important for him.
“And the other one I could only come up with is winning a medal. I’ve seen it now in two Olympics where he puts a lot into that. For someone who did not think that golf should be in the Olympics in the beginning, he has come all the way around. And certainly in Paris, and what he told me on that last day in Paris was ‘I’ve never fought so hard in my life to finish third’. Those are the only two things I could realistically come up with and think yeah, that would add to the resume.”
What Rory McIlroy has already said about captaining the European Ryder Cup team
With players peaking earlier and Keegan Bradley set to captain the USA team at Bethpage, it is not entirely surprising that there has already been thoughts as to when it will be McIlroy’s turn on the European side.
Europe has, as things stand, lost a long list of potential captains due to LIV Golf. And it appears from the outside that Luke Donald is highly unlikely to stay on in the role again after this year.
As it turns out, McIlroy told Sky Sports last year that there had been discussions about him potentially being a playing captain for 2027 when the Ryder Cup takes place at Adare Manor. McIlroy however, insisted that he had no interest in the role.
He said: “It’s been mentioned and I’ve just said no way because it depends: what do you want?
“If you want to be the best captain you can be you can’t play, and if you want to be the best player you can be you can’t captain.”
McIlroy’s playing career could now have a new lease of life. And when you look at Justin Rose reaching yet another Masters playoff, there seems to be no reason why McIlroy cannot continue at the very highest level for at least another decade.
With that, it may be some time before he ends up taking on the captaincy.
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