In case you haven’t heard, Rory McIlroy won the Masters and notched the career Grand Slam, an accomplishment that took him more than a decade to complete as he tried to run down that elusive Masters title.
McIlroy won his first major in 2011 and had the third leg of the career Grand Slam secured in 2014. All that was left was the Masters, but a decade passed and he was still without the coveted jacket.
He had several close calls — not just at the Masters, but in several majors — and the scar tissue was starting to build.
But a couple of weeks ago on Masters Sunday, McIlroy persevered through a roller-coaster fourth round to finally complete the slam.
He admitted the enormous pressure he was under afterward. Heck, even some players were nervous for him.
“I was nervous watching and I wasn’t playing,” said Keegan Bradley, who missed the cut. “I had this feeling that I don’t know if another human being in the golf world has felt that type of pressure ever.”
Bradley reflected on McIlroy’s Masters on GOLF’s Subpar podcast — which was recorded live at The Bank on Hilton Head Island with Bradley and Akshay Bhatia during the RBC Heritage — and said the fact that McIlroy needed the Masters as his final leg made the slam that much more challenging.
“People can say all they want about these other majors, but the Masters is the biggest one,” Bradley said. “And to tick that off and win that, you are looking at a lifetime of celebration. Forget about the grand slam, you win the Masters, you are doing that until you are 85. And you get to enjoy, you get to celebrate your golf career and it’s something that’s really special. And for a player like Rory not to have that is ridiculous, so I’m excited he did.”
McIlroy’s career Grand Slam was just the sixth in golf history, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
You can listen to the entire Subpar episode with Bradley and Bhatia here or watch the YouTube video below.
As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.
