What does a man do when he finally pushes the boulder up and over the mountain and is not damned to futility for all eternity? What does he do next?
What was that line about Alexander the Great?
“And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.”
Rory McIlroy indeed wept in April after he won the Masters, after he harpooned his own white whale, vanquished his demons, silenced his critics and crossed that threshold into a realm of golf history of distinct exclusivity—one of six owners of the career grand slam. He probably won’t be the last to do it, but his journey has been the most exhausting.
So what now?
Well, McIlroy doesn’t know. “I have no idea. I’m sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point,” he said Tuesday at Oakmont Country Club, where the 125th US Open begins Thursday.
“Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next,” the 36-year-old native of Northern Ireland said. “I think I’ve always been a player that struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament. I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you’ve just accomplished something, and you want to enjoy it, and you want to sort of relish the fact that you’ve achieved a goal.”
Winning the Masters wasn’t just a goal. It was a quest. It was his crusade. And last October he applied himself to his craft as assiduously as he ever had, especially after three gut-churning major setbacks at the 2022 British Open at St Andrews and in this championship the last two years when he finished runner-up.
Since defeating Justin Rose on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff—and who among us didn’t hold a thought that a setback at Augusta National Golf Club might have been fatal to his career and legacy?—McIlroy hasn’t been quite the same player. His T-47 finish at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, a home-course advantage if such exists, is proving more instructive of McIlroy’s mindset given his introspection on Tuesday.
He is searching for the next goal. He seemed to find it, sort of, after his press conference, when he admitted a feeling of unfinished business after losing to Wyndham Clark at Los Angeles Country Club two years ago and to Bryson DeChambeau last June at Pinehurst.
Then again.
“I would have said ‘yes’ much quicker if I hadn’t won the Masters,” he replied to the question of unfinished business in the championship he won in 2011 at Congressional that assuaged his first Masters disappointment. “I obviously want to play well here. I didn’t like what happened last year. I didn’t like what happened at LACC. I feel like I’m playing US Open golf venues much better at this point in my career than I ever have, so I don’t want to go in there feeling like I want revenge.”
True, but revenge can be a motivator all its own. McIlroy, the world No. 2, might find fuel in shelving his rightful feeling of satisfaction and conjuring up some chip-on-the-shoulder indignation.
Just a suggestion.
He seemed to be open to at least trying to forget about the Masters.
“I think it’s trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago,” he posited. “Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working. I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labor come to fruition and have everything happen.
“But at the same time, you have to enjoy that. You have to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that, and I will continue to do that. At some point, you have to realise that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season, here, Portrush, Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things that I’m sort of looking at for the rest of the year.”
Bigger than the Masters? Well, no. Almost as big? No, probably not even close. It was suggested to him that he maybe go big picture. Only three men have cracked double figures in major titles: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen. Why not shoot for 10? He still has a long runway to get there, given his age, health and talent.
McIlroy could only let out a small laugh.
“I’m just trying to get myself in shape for this one,” he said.
