Rory McIlroy is still yet to win the Masters and complete the career Grand Slam, but some of his fellow players believe the Northern Irishman deserves the accolade
Billy Horschel has echoed the thoughts of Tiger Woods when it comes to predicting Rory McIlroy’s chances of finally get over the line at the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam.
McIlroy won all four of his major titles in the space of three years between 2011 and 2014. In that time the Northern Irishman clinched both The Open Championship and US Open, as well as two PGA Championship victories, the last coming at Valhalla Golf Club just over 10 years ago.
Since then though, McIlroy has been unable to add to his collection, with the glaring omission a green jacket, having failed to get over the line at Augusta National in 16 attempts.
It is something that has overshadowed the 35-year-old for some time, but his PGA Tour rival Horschel believes it is only a matter of time before he gets his arms into the iconic green jacket. “I hope so, for Rory’s sake,” claimed Horschel on McIlroy winning the Masters and completing the Grand Slam.
“I know too well no one deserves anything in this game, but you look at what Rory has done in the game of golf, he deserves to win golf’s Grand Slam. Of course, you could say the same about Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, and the likes of Phil Mickelson. I just feel that it would be great to see someone like Rory achieve the feat.
“I’ve seen Tiger [Woods] achieve such a milestone but then to have someone that I know as well and as admire like Rory, would be unbelievable.” Horschel’s comments came after he pipped McIlroy at last month’s BMW PGA Championship in a playoff, the latest near-miss for the Northern Irishman as his season of what could have been events goes on.
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Rory McIlroy is yet to win the Masters ( Image: Getty Images)
The American is not the first to rate McIlroy’s Grand Slam chances, with his good friend, and business partner, Woods saying similar when at this year’s Masters. “No question, he’ll do it at some point,” Woods said at Augusta in April “Rory’s too talented, too good.
“He’s going to be playing this event for a very long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when. “I think that Rory will be a great Masters champion one day, and it could be this week. You never know. I just think that just, again, the talent that he has, the way he plays game and the golf course fits his eye, it’s just a matter of time.”
Unsurprisingly McIlroy was flattered to receive such high praise from arguably golf’s greatest players. “It’s flattering. It’s nice to hear, in my opinion, the best player ever to play the game say something like that. Does that mean that it’s going to happen? Obviously not.
“But he’s been around the game long enough to know that I at least have the potential to do it. I know I’ve got the potential to do it too. It’s not as if I haven’t been a pretty good player for the last couple of decades. It’s nice to hear it when it comes out of his mouth.”
