AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Those of us of a European persuasion knew Rory McIlroy had it in him. He had demonstrated glimpses of his exceptional ability at golf, a maddening game, time and again – the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional, the 2012 PGA at Kiawah Island, the Open at Hoylake in 2014 and 2014 PGA at Valhalla as well as in Ryder Cups, in stroke-play tournaments on golf courses throughout the continent. But, we asked one another time and again, when would we get the satisfaction of seeing the man we believed to be the most talented golfer from the United Kingdom finally achieve what we thought he deserved and probably what he thought he deserved too – the career Grand Slam?
And when it came, at a time around midnight in the British Isles and later still in mainland Europe, the weight of his achievement bent him double and he fell to his knees in emotion and with tears streaming down his face. How appropriate it was that McIlroy was inducted into one of the game’s most hallowed sanctums at one of the game’s greatest cathedrals, joining Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as men who have won all four of the game’s greatest prizes?
When McIlroy holed the winning putt, which at 3 feet was probably shorter than Poppy, his daughter, hard-bitten journalists rose as one in the press centre at Augusta National to acknowledge the feat of one of the game’s most popular players. And similar waves of approval probably swept around the world. An email from a friend in Australia dropped into my queue within minutes of McIlroy’s putt dropping into the hole. It read: “A huge group of people here at the [Sydney] golf club just rose with one voice and cheered.”
“What a finish,” emailed an American friend. “So happy for Rory.”
McIlroy has tormented us and delighted us for years. On his day, no matter where he was playing, he could make the game seem easy. Who looked more natural at the address position than he? Perhaps only Seve Ballesteros.
His swing flows like syrup, he is rarely off balance and shows little sign of effort.
Who drives the ball so powerfully (and sometimes so straight) as McIlroy? Perhaps only Greg Norman in days gone by and Ludvig Åberg today. Norman was a sight to behold, hurling himself at the ball with such force his body ended in the notorious reverse-C position and sure enough under the strain this imposed his back soon began to creak. Once the flavour of the month among golf coaches, the reverse-C has lost favour.
Instead we marvel at the quiet ferocity of a McIlroy drive that sends the ball so far down a fairway with, seemingly, so little effort. His swing flows like syrup and he is rarely off balance. It has to be conceded that he is not as straight off the tee as he would like but we will let that pass.
What a vivid contrast with Bryson DeChambeau, his playing partner, on Sunday. DeChambeau addresses the ball as if it has insulted his mother and hits it in a frenzy of activity, hard, admittedly, but robotically. Most other golfers are practically off their feet at the end of their drives; McIlroy is able to hold his finishing position, hands high above his head, as long as he wants.
No matter how well he was playing he could never convince us that a slip or even a disaster was not about to occur. He has had a weakness with his wedges that appears and then disappears. His putting, rather like his game, can be mercurial. One magnificent straight drive of perhaps 350 yards might be followed by one into nearby trees. There was never the certainty of a Nicklaus or a Woods about McIlroy. It made him exciting to watch but nerve-wracking, an entertainer par excellence.
His many followers suffered with him at the 2011 Masters. McIlroy was 21, about to be 22, and had a bird’s nest of hair and a body that was not the sculpted and powerful thing it is now. He held a four-stroke lead after three rounds and a one-stroke lead as he stood on the 10th tee in the final round.
What happened thereafter has lingered with him like a bad smell. He yanked his tee shot on the 10th into the foliage on the left of the fairway, played the inward nine holes in 43 strokes and recorded an 80, 15 strokes worse than his opening round four days earlier.
With him you often got the best and often got the worst. If there was a consolation, it was that once you got the worst you knew the best was never very far away. His 2011 performance at Augusta was followed two months later by victory in the U.S. Open at Congressional.
They say that the 1975 Masters was one of the most thrilling ever to have been played with Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf matching one another stroke for stroke. Take that Jack! Take that Tom! Take that Johnny! But 50 years later came one of the most exciting of the 43 Masters I have ever seen, with unquestionably the most extraordinarily exciting final day, edging even Nicklaus' victory in 1986 and Woods' in 2019.
It was made the more so by the fact that the playoff was between two golfers able to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup. One man went round in 66, had 10 birdies – and lost. The other man went round in 73, had two double bogeys – and won.
So now that McIlroy has done it, a circle in golf has been squared. Let him cry his eyes out as the relief pours out of him. He will return to the DP World Tour in a few months and his followers there will have the chance to salute him then. He deserves it.
“We saw history today,” Justin Rose, who lost the one-hole playoff to McIlroy, said. “Someone won the career Grand Slam. It is a momentous day in the game of golf. Quite rightly, the fans are going to be excited about that. He [Rory] is captivating to watch. He’s a great player. He plays with so much style and charisma and flair and … he makes mistakes under pressure. People, they want to … keep watching, keep guessing."
After McIlroy had sunk the winning putt he and Rose embraced on the 18th green. Rose took McIlroy’s head in his hands and said: “Listen, I was glad I was on this green to witness you win the career Grand Slam. That’s such a cool, momentous moment in the game of golf.”
And had McIlroy’s fans around the world been privy to that little conversation, they would surely have said, “Hear, hear.”
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: Rory McIlroy, for many reasons, has both tormented and delighted us for years.
Joel Marklund, Courtesy Augusta National