Beyond the glory and the green jacket, every year’s Masters winner is bestowed an exclusive opportunity beyond planning the following year’s champions dinner.
He, and he alone, has the chance to win the calendar grand slam.
That’s normally an afterthought because the enormity of the challenge makes it as likely to happen as the Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup (fingers crossed). There was a smattering of grand slam chatter last year when Scottie Scheffler triumphed at Augusta National as the best golfer in the world by a large margin, but the notion took a back seat to his farcical arrest in Louisville, which obviously hampered his chances of winning the PGA at Valhalla, a trophy Xander Schauffele captured.
Twelve months later the sentiment around a possible slam has more steam. Rory McIlroy jettisoned a massive monkey from his back when he won the Masters in April. After so many close calls at Augusta National, McIlroy prevailed in a playoff over Justin Rose for his first major triumph in nearly 11 years. It was his third victory of 2025 and it has resulted in a narrative that the Northern Irishman, 36, is set to go on a run of major wins like he did in his early 20s when he won four of them from 2011 to 2014.
Adding to that belief is this year’s collection of major venues, continuing this week with the PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, where McIlroy has won the Truist Championship (nee Wells Fargo Championship) four times, including last year.
“I must say, I do go on Zillow quite a lot and look at some of the properties around here,†McIlroy joked after that victory.
Quail Hollow is a big, brawny ballpark that McIlroy has traditionally torn apart with his driver. That’s the way he’ll attack the course again starting Thursday and in a statistic that will shock nobody, McIlroy leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee this season. Add that fact to his past success at Quail Hollow and it’s plausible that he is halfway to the slam come Sunday night.
June will then bring the U.S. Open at Oakmont, as tough a venue as there is in golf and one that figures to eliminate many in the field because of the power it demands of competitors. The mighty McIlroy will benefit from that.
A month later, McIlroy will be home in Northern Ireland to compete in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Things went miserably for him in the Open at Portrush in 2019 when so much was expected of him. He opened the tournament with a quadruple bogey after his first tee shot sailed out of bounds, which led to a Thursday 79. That cost him weekend tee times even after he followed that score with a second-round 65. It’s hard to fathom the local favourite won’t make amends for that travesty and at least get in the mix this time around. McIlroy, after all, holds the course record at Royal Portrush, a 61 he carded in competition when he was just 16.
Not that McIlroy is going to accomplish the impossible. (Right?) The odds are way too long and his peers are way too formidable. But in a sport that’s been desperate for positivity at the professional level, McIlroy’s Masters triumph following that roller-coaster of a final round brought literal tears of joy to many watching around the world. His emotional outpouring on the 18th green resonated with so many.
Which means the discourse around a possible calendar grand slam isn’t so much based on McIlroy’s born-again major bona fides, but in a desire for the feel-good story to keep on rolling. Unification of the professional game would be overshadowed by the continuation of someone taking a legitimate shot at making history and nothing would be better than that.
As far-fetched as it is.
Bits & Bites
For the record, I think McIlroy does win the PGA this week … Also for the record, I think the Leafs can win the Stanley Cup this year … McIlroy’s biggest challenger this week may not be Scottie Scheffler but Justin Thomas. Thomas, a winner at the RBC Heritage last month, is coming off a tie for second at the Truist Championship and won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow … Also worth noting: this week’s defending champion, Schauffele, was the runner-up at the Truist at Quail Hollow in 2023 and 2024 … Sepp Straka won the Truist on the same day Mackenzie Hughes lost in a playoff at the ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic. It was Straka whom Hughes defeated in extra holes to win the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship … I wish Strata was still a prominent golf brand and that Straka was sponsored by the company … Can’t recall a time this far into the season that Brooke Henderson . She’s 45th after a missed cut at last week’s Mizuho Americas Open. Henderson ranks outside the top 100 in strokes gained approach, normally one of her strong suits … Sudarshan Yellamaraju is down to 15th on the Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. After winning the circuit’s second event this season, the Mississauga golfer has played just four of eight tournaments with two missed cuts and two ties for 56th. Yellamaraju skipped two events in South America and the recent tournament in Mexico after getting sick during that swing last year. He also wanted to try his hand at PGA Tour Monday qualifiers. He plans to pay a fairly full KFT schedule from here on out. Only the top 20 on the points list will earn PGA Tour cards by season’s end, down from 30 in previous years.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation