McIlroy hopes to complete Grand Slam at Masters

Rory McIlroy has his sights set on the Masters title as he bids to complete a Grand Slam.

World number three Rory McIlroy says it would be a “massive achievement” if he managed to win the 2019 Masters and join the elite list of players to have completed the Grand Slam (Rory McIlroy 13/2 – 2019 Masters Outright).

For McIlroy, major success came relatively early in his career, breaking his duck at the 2011 US Open before going on to clinch the US PGA Championship twice (2012 and 2014) and the Open (2014).

The Northern Irishman was being tipped to challenge the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, who have 32 major trophies combined, but it is now five years since the 29-year-old tasted success in one of the ‘big four’ events.

Swing changes, injuries and personal matters have all had an impact on the 15-time PGA Tour winner and there were worries whether he would be able to rediscover his top form.

However, McIlroy has been in sensational form in 2019 and he recently landed The Players Championship for the first time, holding off runner-up Jim Furyk by one stroke.

Attention now turns to the event at Augusta National next week and a victory for the County Down-born star in Georgia would make his just the sixth player to win all four majors in the Masters era.

McIlroy says it would be truly amazing to join that elite list, although he insists he can’t start thinking about that and needs to focus on his game instead.

“[A Grand Slam] would be a massive achievement. It would be huge,” he was quoted as saying by nypost.com. “But again, I can’t think of it that way.

“I just have to go out and play the golf course the way I know that I can play and repeat that for four days. And as I’ve said, hopefully that’s good enough to have the lowest score that week.

“I feel like I’m good enough to join those people and that it would just be a very proud moment in my life and something that I could look back on, and I would love to sit at the Champions Dinner when I’m 92.”

World number one Dustin Johnson is 9/1 to win the Masters for the first time while Englishman Justin Rose, who lost to Sergio Garica in a play-off in the 2017 edition, is 12/1 alongside four-time winner Woods.