Floodgates Could Open For McIlroy

View From The Fairway by Derek Clements

AS THE dust finally settles on Rory McIlroy’s gut-wrenching victory at The Masters it is worth reflecting on what he has achieved - and what could still lie ahead for the Northern Irishman.

In all my years of watching golf, both in the flesh and from my armchair, I can say without fear of contradiction that I have never witnessed anything quite like that final round at Augusta. I have to say that had he failed to win then I think it might have signalled a terminal blow for his career.

The resilience he has shown to constantly bounce back from heartbreaking losses has been nothing short of unbelievable. No current world-class player carries anything like the amount of scar tissue that McIlroy has. He should have won The Open at St Andrews in 2022. He should have won th US Open in 2023. And he should have won the US Open at Pinehurst in 2024. There have been many other times when he has walked away from golf courses feeling like he has been kicked in the stomach. There was the 2024 Irish Open and there was the 2024 BMW PGA Championship.

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(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

But time and again he dusts himself down and comes back for more.

I was utterly exhausted after he holed the final putt at Augusta National to become only the sixth golfer in history to achieve the career grand slam. He now stands alongside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. These are legends of the game. And that is now a status that McIlroy can also claim. He is a legend. He may “only” have won five majors and he may have waited 11 years before victories four and five.

To put this into perspective, he is the first European to achieve the feat and the first golfer to do so since Tiger Woods 25 years ago.

But what a ride it has been.

It was illuminating to hear a partisan American gallery rooting for McIlroy ahead of Bryson DeChambeau, who is one of their own, and Scottie Scheffler, another American who is also the world number one. There is no doubt in my mind as to why this should be the case - for all the brilliance McIlroy can produce, each and every one of us who has ever picked up a golf club can identify with his frailties, with the mistakes he makes.

Let’s take the 13th hole in the final round as a case in point. After another wayward drive (and we all know about them), he was unable to go for the par five in two so laid up. He left himself the easiest of approaches, with the ball in a perfectly flat lie - something of a rarity at Augusta National. He simply had to fly Rae’s Creek, land hi sball to the left of the hole and the it would have rolled towards the cup, setting up another birdie chance. Inexplicably, he ended up in Rae’s Creek. It was a shot that would have embarrassed many 18-handicappers.

And then there was the other side, the man who can hit golf shots the rest of us can only play in our dreams.

At the par-five 15th he found the left side of the fairway but was blocked out by trees. Instead of laying up, he hit a huge, towering hook and the ball landed on the green and rolled up to within eight feet of the hole. It was a thrilling shot, arguably the best of the tournament. That he missed the eagle putt only further illustrated his human side. And then there was that missed five-footer on the final green to win.

He looked utterly spent, his race run. So how on earth was he able to summon up the energy and the inspiration to smash a magnificent drive into the middle of the 18th fairway in the playoff and then strike a gap wedge to three feet? I simply cannot answer that question. I was utterly convinced that Justin Rose would win the playoff.

When he holed the winning putt all that pent-up emotion came pouring out. McIlroy was not the only one to shed tears. The entire Sky commentary team struggled to keep their emotions in check and I make no apologies for admitting that I was a blubbering wreck.

It also means that when he turns up in 2026 he will no longer be asked if this is the year that he finally wins the Green Jacket. He can now finally enjoy The Masters. And with that weight of expectation and pressure lifted from his shoulders, do not be surprised if he adds another couple of victories here.

And that brings us to the rest of this season. He has already won three times in 2025 - the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Players Championship and The Masters. He has pocketed more than $13m in prize money before the end of April and is closing the gap on Scottie Scheffler at the top of the world rankings.

For much of the time at Augusta, McIlroy played with a spring in his step And you can be sure we will be seeing that again in spades at the US PGA Championship, which is being staged at Quail Hollow. If McIlroy had to chose one course to play for the rest of his life then it would be probably be this one.

It was the venue for his first PGA Tour success in 2010. Having barely made the 36-hole cut, he produced rounds of 66 and 62 at the weekend to win by four shots. He has gone on to win the Wells Fargo Championship four times. In 2015 he won it by seven strokes and last year he saw off Xander Schauffele by five shots. Apart from that final round in 2010, he also shot a 61 on his way to winning in 2015.

He will start the week as favourite and will relish the chance of securing back-to-back majors.

The US Open will be staged at Oakmont. US Open venues should not suit McIlroy. For all his reputation for being a magnificent driver of the golf ball, he misses more than his fair share of fairways and you simply cannot afford to do that at courses such as Oakmont, where the rough will be punishing and the greens will be rock-hard and lightning fast. But he came within a whisker of winning this tournament in 2023 and should have landed it last year. So who knows?

The last time that The Open was played at Royal Portrush was in 2019 and McIlroy began as a red-hot favourite. He started his challenge with an eight and missed the cut as Shane Lowry went on to win.

But McIlroy has history at Portrush. At the age of 16 and playing in the Northern Ireland Championships, he had an eagle and nine birdies on his way to a 61. This is a golf course he has played dozens of times. He knows it inside out, He understands its nuances completely and utterly. And I guarantee that in July 2025 he will not be starting his challenge with a quadruple bogey eight.

Now that all that weight has been lifted from his shoulders, he could win all four majors this year. He won’t, of course, but I fully expect him to win the US PGA, to struggle at the US Open and to be right in the mix at Royal Portrush.

He will win the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup and I believe that he will inspire Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup.

Not bad for a man labelled by many as a choker, eh?

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