ORLANDO, Fla. – Rory McIlroy knows the questions are coming.
With the PGA Tour in the heart of a revamped Florida swing, the path to Magnolia Lane grows shorter by the day. Before too long he’ll be back amid the azaleas, chasing the only major title that has eluded him and facing queries about why it’s taken him so long to do so.
He’s been down this road before. Four times, to be exact, as he reminded a throng of media ahead of his title defense at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Each of the last four years have seen him contend at the Masters and notch a top-10 finish, but fall short of the coveted green jacket that would vault him into golf’s pantheon.
So this spring has a familiar feel to it despite the overhauled schedule, as McIlroy hopes that this will be the last year he has to answer questions about what he has (and hasn’t done) at Augusta National.
“Certainly this time of the year where everyone’s looking ahead to the first major of the season, you expect it,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy is one of three active players still chasing the final leg of the career Grand Slam. But Phil Mickelson’s U.S. Open hopes are dwindling with each passing birthday, and the span during which Jordan Spieth faces PGA Championship questions is measured in weeks.
By contrast, McIlroy has nearly half the calendar year to field inquiries that tend to center on Augusta National: how his off-season plans will help prepare him for the rolling fairways and glass-like greens, or whether his decision to add this tournament or skip that one was done with the Masters in mind. It’s a steady drip that transforms into a deluge once the spring flowers start to bloom, one he has waded through ever since leaving Hoylake with the claret jug in 2014.
Part of the fascination with McIlroy’s green jacket pursuit is the sheer history involved. The modern Grand Slam list goes just five names deep, with none added since Tiger Woods in 2000. It’s a fact McIlroy is keenly aware of, and one that may have hindered some of his more recent attempts.
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“It’s definitely taken me time to come to terms with the things I’ve needed to deal with inside my own head,” he said. “I think sometimes I’m too much of a fan of the game, because I know exactly who has won the Grand Slam and I know exactly the people I would be putting myself alongside. So there’s maybe a part of that, that if I didn’t know the history of the game and I wasn’t such a fan, it would work in my favor. But that’s not me.”
Then there’s the fact that, already with 10 Masters starts to his credit, McIlroy has come so achingly close before. There was the infamous back nine in 2011, when everything went so quickly awry, as well as last year’s near-miss when he failed to put any pressure on Patrick Reed. McIlroy hasn’t finished worse than 10th at Augusta National since 2013, each trip bringing with it plenty of good golf undone by a brief pocket or two of poor play that thwarted his title chances.
But surely one aspect that ups the fascination when it comes to McIlroy’s Grand Slam bid is the repetition. It’s the fact that every spring the questions return, as he prepares to take on the same course that he couldn’t solve the year prior.
Time marches on, even for the former teen sensation who sits on the cusp of his 30th birthday. But McIlroy hopes that in this case, familiarity will lead to success.
“I guess I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the fact that I’m going to fail more times than I succeed at that certain conquest, or whatever you want to call it,” he said. “So I’ve become comfortable with the fact that I’ve tried four times, I’ve failed, but Abraham Lincoln lost the first [several] elections he was ever in. He wound up being the President of the United States. So I’ve still got a little bit of time.”
In the 12 months since McIlroy left Bay Hill, he has compiled dozens of great rounds that have resulted in zero worldwide wins. The close calls have become a pattern this year, with each of his first four starts yielding finishes of T-5 or better – but without any hardware to show for his efforts.
“He’s obviously got the type of game that when he wins, it looks so easy that you think, ‘Why aren’t you doing this week in and week out?’” said Justin Rose. “The great thing about Rory, which when you’re competing against him is not that great of a thing, is when he’s questioned he kind of somehow snaps into a gear and proves a lot of people wrong. He’s done that through his career a couple of times.”
With an approach that defies his age, McIlroy remains cerebral in assessing both his Grand Slam chances and his overall place in the game. He professes an ability to separate Rory the golfer from Rory the person, noting that the former would desperately love to join the exclusive company a green jacket would provide, while the latter will live just fine if his closet remains a collection of other hues.
But despite the delineation, he allows his mind to wander for a brief moment to what might have been – and what might still come to pass.
“It would just be a very proud moment in my life, and something that I could look back on,” he said. “And I would love to sit at the Champions Dinner when I’m 92.”
Such is the gravity of an opportunity that comes to pass just once a year. McIlroy has grown accustomed to this cadence, one that will pick up in speed after next week’s Players Championship. But there’s only one way to put the subject to rest.
Until then, the questions will keep coming.
