McIlroy’s priorities are all about the majors and as is always the case for the Masters winner, he is the only man now able to complete an unprecedented feat of completing a calendar year Grand Slam.
Tiger Woods is the only player to hold all four of the modern majors at the same time, but his winning run began with the 2000 US Open, took in The Open and PGA – when it was played in August – and ended at the following year’s Masters.
So is winning all four majors in the same year achievable? “I think it’s possible,” McIlroy told me. “But it’s incredibly difficult to achieve.
“There’s a reason that no one’s been able to do it before in the history of the game.
“The best thing that you can do is give yourself a chance in each one and then just see where the chips fall on the Sunday.
“There’s quite a lot of randomness at times to winning golf tournaments. You have to have a lot of things go your way along with playing well yourself.
“So, in 100 years time if one person has done it, I would say, yeah, I could see that happening, but it’s so difficult.”
Nevertheless, the world number two has overcome demons that led to a near 11-year wait for his fifth major title which came at last year’s Masters.
“If you look at my game and my results and my consistency from 2022 through to now, I’ve been on a nice run,” McIlroy said. “And that run has culminated with the last couple of Masters, which has been really nice.
“Major championships aren’t won with statistics or previous results. They are won with grit and determination and hitting the shots under pressure when you need to.
“And there are no real statistics to show you how good you are at that. That’s just something that you have to learn and be.”
McIlroy endured a string of near misses at majors before claiming last year’s Masters. “Once you start to get over that hump and you get a win, you get another win, it sort of breeds confidence from there,” he said.
“Form gives you confidence leading into events, but I would say that the way I won at Augusta a few weeks ago gives me more confidence about where I’m at and what I can do in these big weeks, than say winning two or three events leading up to a major.”
McIlroy’s biggest challenge this week will come from world number one and defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who skipped Quail Hollow to hone his skills for the Aronimink test.
Players champion Cameron Young and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick are the other form players while McIlroy’s Ryder Cup partner Tommy Fleetwood showed encouraging signs by finishing fifth in Charlotte last week.
