Can Rory McIlroy finally win the elusive Masters and career slam?

Rory McIlroy hits out of the rough on the 14th hole during the final round of the 2023 U.S. Open.

Staff Writer

April 10, 2024 3:02 PM PT

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy is a green jacket away from a career grand slam, something only five players have done in the history of golf. But each year, the Masters has eluded him. He has seven top-10 finishes in the tournament, including second in 2022, yet each year has been denied.

Maybe he’s trying too hard.

“This golf course gets you to chase things a little more than other golf courses if you make a bogey or get yourself out of position,” said McIlroy, 34, among the favorites in the 2024 Masters, which begins Thursday. “Because it always tempts you to do something you think you can do.”

It’s important to remember, he said this week, that the Masters is a 72-hole golf tournament and you cannot win it from the first tee shot.

“I’m pretty confident in my golf game,” McIlroy said. “I think I can do most things, but sometimes you just have to take the conservative route and be a little more disciplined and patient.”

McIlroy is second in the World Golf Rankings behind Scottie Scheffler, although that metric is skewed because it doesn’t factor in LIV Golf events — and that competing tour has a significant footprint on this year’s Masters.

This year’s 13-member LIV contingent includes defending Masters champion Jon Rahm; Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, who tied for second; and Patrick Reed, who finished fourth.

Rahm is looking to become the fourth player to win back-to-back Masters, joining Jack Nicklaus, who repeated in 1966, Nick Faldo (1990) and Tiger Woods (2002).

Rahm has played in five LIV events this year and has yet to win. But neither Nicklaus nor Faldo had won anywhere coming into the Masters the years they repeated, and Woods had won once. So coming to Augusta on a hot or cold streak is not an especially reliable predictor of how someone is going to do.

“I feel physically better than I did last year,” Rahm said. “But then once the competition starts, it doesn’t really matter. Once the gun goes off, whatever you feel is out the window; you’ve got to go out there and post a score.

“So it wouldn’t be the first time. It wouldn’t be the first time we hear somebody not feeling their best and winning.”

This also marks the fifth anniversary of Woods’ historic victory in 2019, when he overcame all odds to win his fifth Masters title.

Woods, 48, has a chance to set another Masters record by making the cut for a 24th consecutive time. But winning a sixth green jacket is almost inconceivable, especially considering he has played in only three full-field events since 2023, and finished just one: last year’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera. He withdrew from the Masters last year seven holes into the third round after aggravating a foot injury.

Then again, people have counted him out before.

Can Woods win?

“I still think I can,” he said.

Everyone figures to be battling the weather. At midday Wednesday, the forecast for Thursday was brutal, calling for thunderstorms in the early morning followed by a stronger band of heavy rain and thunderstorms from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The wind is expected to be whipping, with gusts of 40-45 mph, giving way to scattered showers in the afternoon and evening. The windy conditions could continue until Friday morning with eventual sunny skies Friday afternoon and through the weekend.

NBC analyst Brandel Chamblee said the player who will have the most pressure piled on his shoulders this week is McIlroy.

“You go back and look and there’s a pattern,” Chamblee said. “Every time, he seems to play his worst golf when it means the most — in other words, in the first round when he’s got to get off to a good start.”

Chamblee noted that in his last five Masters, McIlroy has an average score of 73.8 in the opening round.

“That speaks to not being in the right place mentally,” Chamblee said.

Woods said he’s confident McIlroy will eventually join him as the sixth career grand slam winner. Along with Woods, the others to win all four major championships were Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

“No question he’ll do it at some point,” Woods said of McIlroy. “Rory’s too talented, too good. He’s going to be playing this event for a very long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when.”

McIlroy was happy to hear that, but acknowledged there’s a difference between words and deeds.

“Yeah, it’s flattering,” he said. “It’s nice to hear, in my opinion, the best player ever to play the game say something like that. So, yeah, I mean, does that mean that it’s going to happen? Obviously not. But he’s been around the game long enough to know that I at least have the potential to do it. I know I’ve got the potential to do it too. It’s not as if I haven’t been a pretty good player for the last couple of decades.”

Finally, he conceded: “It’s nice to hear it when it comes out of his mouth.”