We all know McIlroy will end his major drought in 2020 – but where will it be?
Rory McIlroy has to get over the line for a fifth major title this year. He has to. But which one will he win? Our Fourball team put forward their cases for each
Rory McIlroy has declared his intention to be the best player on the planet for the foreseeable future, and if that doesn’t get you excited for the year ahead then what will? Our Fourball team picked one major each where they think McIlroy will finally get that elusive No. 5…
The Masters, writes Alex Perry. “He’ll never get the job done at Augusta,” they all screamed after that meltdown in 2011. Because – and it’s a fair point – how do you get over something like that?
I’d be less optimistic if he’d missed the cut every year since then – he says stating the obvious – but after a T40 and T25 in 2012 and ’13, McIlroy has since gone T8-4-T10-T7-T5.
It’s coming. You know it’s coming, I know it’s coming, Rory knows it’s coming. It’s just a matter of when. We’re almost 10 years removed from the snap hook on 10, he’s over it. And you should be too.
Now let’s stop talking about it and prepare ourselves to see Rory slip into green in April.
The PGA Championship, writes Joe Hughes. I don’t think Rory’s comments about being the best in the world for the coming years are far-fetched at all. In fact, I totally agree with him.
Harding Park will suit his game – which course doesn’t these days? – and the PGA Championship provides a nice low-key way for McIlroy to ease back into the major-winning scene.
The reason the debate over whether or not he is the best in the world exists is because he hasn’t been winning the big four, but he’ll lift the Wanamaker in May, which will be his second tour title of the year already, and then expect a flurry of McIlroy majors.
Koepka? No thanks. Rory’s the man to beat this year.
The US Open, writes Mark Townsend. Nothing much says the US Open is going to turn around Rory’s major luck so let’s go with Winged Foot. Golf isn’t played on paper, look at the past decade at Augusta.
He’s missed half his US Open cuts since winning at Congressional – yes, I know that wasn’t a ‘normal’ US Open – and we tell ourselves that this type of test won’t suit him.
So, after the disappointments of Augusta and Harding Park, he’ll pop up when we’re least expecting it – a bit like Congressional and Hoylake – and we’ll hear a bit more about his new-found patience and perspective and it will be magic.
The Open, writes Dan Murphy. Even with the humiliation of missing the cut when the championship was played in his own country last July, Rory’s Open record bears scrutiny.
In four of the last six Opens he’s finished in the top five – and he wasn’t able to play in 2015 due to injury. In winning at Hoylake in 2014 and coming close at Troon, Birkdale and Carnoustie, plus a third at the Old Course in 2010, he’s proved he’s a serious and serial Open contender.
You don’t put together a record like that without being able to cope with what the Open and its many variables can throw at you.
He’ll frustrate us at Augusta, Harding Park and Winged Foot, but he’ll be ready for Sandwich come July.
Which of our team do you agree with? Or do you think McIlroy will end 2020 stuck on four majors? Let us know in the comments below or you can tweet us.
Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
