What some PGA Tour players have been saying about Rory McIlroy ahead of the Zurich Classic with prediction being made by his peers

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Rory McIlroy will play alongside his good friend Shane Lowry this week, as the pair look to defend their Zurich Classic title.

McIlroy will be floating on thin air right now. What he did at Augusta National 11 days ago was every single golfer’s nirvana.

By winning The Masters, the Northern Irishman entered the pantheon of golfing legends, and became only the sixth person in history to win the Grand Slam.

McIlroy’s Masters win should really free him up now, or at least that’s what his peers were saying immediately after his memorable victory at Augusta.

The 35-year-old is seemingly in a great place mentally now, as he enters the prime years of his career.

McIlroy now has a real aura about him after his The Masters win, one described as ‘scary’ by Xander Schauffele recently.

The sky is the limit for the major champion it seems. The Masters run-in was way too tight for comfort for McIlroy, but he got the job done in the end.

Now, his focus has switched to the Zurich Classic in New Orleans this week.

And many of his fellow PGA Tour pros are convinced that something very specific will now happen with the man from Northern Ireland.

What PGA Tour players have been saying about Rory McIlroy ahead of the Zurich Classic

McIlroy and his friend Shane Lowry were successful at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans last year.

And they will be very keen to defend their crown.

McIlroy and Lowry have said the golf balls they use at the Zurich Classic will depend on which player is hitting the approach shot to the green.

For instance, if McIlroy is teeing off and Lowry is hitting the second shot, they will opt to use the 2019 Open winner’s ball and vice versa.

This week in New Orleans should be a fantastic week for McIlroy to return to action.

The 35-year-old is playing alongside one of his very best friends and the atmosphere is far more relaxed than it would usually be at a PGA Tour event.

McIlroy has looked like a different person since winning The Masters. It seems like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, and anything is possible for him now.

Golf journalist Rex Hoggard shared what other PGA Tour players have been saying about the Masters champion in the build-up to the Zurich Classic this week, when speaking on The Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lav:

“He could continue to go on a tear. I spoke to a couple of players at Hilton Head last week and a couple of guys this week and the consensus is, among the people around him, the players and his contemporaries. That this is going to free him up. This is only going to make him hungrier, only going to put him in a position where he no longer has that ‘burden’ hanging over him. He no longer has to struggle to find motivation going into Augusta. It is going to be there because you are eating in the fancy locker room that nobody else gets to eat in and you are wearing the green jacket when you do it. I think that’s the consensus.

“But we have seen players go the other way. David Duval is the example I always fall back on. He got to the top of the mountain, he won a major championship and got to world number one and kind of realise is this it and didn’t really follow through after that.

“There is always a danger of getting there and wanting to exhale and enjoy it. I don’t think Rory does that, as I think Sahith Theegala told me last week, he is not going to do it because he is a ‘sicko’ but it will be fun to watch him as he goes through the season.”

How many majors will Rory McIlroy win

There’s a genuine case to be made that McIlroy could end his career inside the top five all-time standings when it comes to major wins.

If he wins 10, he will jump up to fourth on the list, behind only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen.

So, five more majors between now and the rest of his career – is that attainable for McIlroy?

The answer to that question is most definitely yes, as long as he maintains his insatiable hunger for the game of course.

If he manages to win one major every two years on average, he will have 10 to his name by the time he’s 45.

And judging by what the PGA Tour players are saying about McIlroy at the Zurich Classic this week, it should surprise nobody if he ends up going on a really dominant run now.