Rory McIlroy has been warned by former Masters champion Trevor Immelman he needs to reign it in at Augusta National if he is to complete the grand slam.
Former Masters champion Trevor Immelman says it’s ‘hard to fathom’ why Rory McIlroy hasn’t won a green jacket but he has a theory.
We are just days away from the first major of the year and, predictably, one of the most compelling storylines will be how McIlroy will fare.
The Northern Irishman comes into his 16th Masters knowing if things don’t go his way in 2024 he will have gone a full decade without winning a major.
McIlroy missed the cut at Augusta National last year amid unprecedented disruption in the men’s game owing to the LIV Golf schism.
The 34-year-old appears to have attempted to remove himself completely from that distraction now after he resigned his position on the tour’s policy board.
A furious McIlroy was captured by the Netflix cameras when the 6 June 2023 peace agreement was announced with LIV’s financiers.
McIlroy said when he heard that bombshell: “I’m almost at the stage where I’m like, ‘F— it, do what you wanna do.'”
It begs the question, what type of McIlroy will we see over April 11-14?
“I mean, it’s hard to fathom really that he hasn’t won a major in a decade with as dominant as he has been in the game during that time,” Immelman told Golf Digest.
“So I look forward to seeing what he comes up with. Wouldn’t it be fun for us on CBS and the golfing world to have McIlroy trying to complete the grand slam here on Sunday in a week’s time?”
Since McIlroy’s infamous collapse at the 2011 Masters as a bushy-haired 22-year-old, he has not really given himself too many chances of completing the grand slam.
Only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have completed the feat.mcloory
Immelman said in the past McIlroy has been ‘too aggressive’ when playing Augusta National.
Earlier this year McIlroy admitted as much and even conceded he was guilty of leaderboard watching too much.
He continued: “This is going to be his [McIlroy’s] 10th attempt, and, mentally, it starts to weigh on you more and more because you feel like you’ve got what it takes.
“If you’ve gotten to this level, you’ve obviously proven it. The pressure you put on yourself and that spotlight just starts to intensify.
“And so mentally it becomes a huge challenge. It’s a monster you have to run toward.
“I think back to some advice that Gary Player gave me on the eve before the final round of the 2008 masters.
“He said, ‘Trevor, you better learn to love of adversity because it’s going to come at some point and when it does, that’s going to be the moment.
“Are you either going to stand up to it and embrace that and really fight to win this Masters or are you going to cower away?'”
McIlroy has already made his scouting trip to play Augusta National.
His private jet landed in Georgia on Sunday evening. He is due to play this week’s Valero Texas Open.
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