Perseverance and resilience. Two characteristics that most of the greats possess. Talent and skill usually grab all the headlines but that underlying grit, the refusal to give up, the never knowing when they’re beaten, the ability to ride the punches and keep coming back. It’s something most of sport’s world-beaters have.
In football, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi dazzle with their audacious ability week in, week out. They can score goals most mere mortals can only dream of. But look closer and you’ll find two of the thickest-skinned players in the game. True warriors who brush off multiple fouls every match and keep going when the chips are down no matter what.
In boxing, Muhammad Ali had his world heavyweight title stripped from him, was banned from the sport for three years in his prime, and came back to reclaim it. Twice. When the world had written him off, he found another gear. The Rumble in the Jungle. The Thrilla in Manila. A man who fed off adversity and relished the challenge.
Rory McIlroy’s back-to-back Masters wins prove he possesses both key champions’ characteristics in abundance. First there was his refusal to let his head go down during 16 unsuccessful and often excruciatingly painful attempts at winning a green jacket before finally securing one last year as he completed the hallowed career Grand Slam.
Then, as he went back-to-back at Augusta last month, the vaporising of a six-shot halfway lead – the largest 36-hole advantage in Masters history – would have seen many players shrivel and die under the glare of the spotlight and self-doubt. But he dug deep, refocussed and stayed the course to finish the job and become just the fourth player to successfully defend the Masters title, following Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.
“I’ve competed against him for a long time, and you don’t win the amount of tournaments that he’s won out here without being pretty resilient,” Scheffler said of McIlroy.
Those words carried extra significance. Because the man saying them was the World No.1. High praise from the highest possible source. Scheffler had endured a difficult start to the week before reeling off two bogey-free rounds over the weekend. He closed to within one shot. McIlroy didn’t blink.
Saturday told the story of how it almost unravelled. McIlroy bogeyed the first, recovered with a birdie at three and made the turn still two ahead. Then Amen Corner bit hard. A double bogey at the 11th, a bogey at the 12th – and just like that the record six-shot lead was gone, Cameron Young level at the top. McIlroy fought back with birdies at 14 and 15 to briefly retake control, only to bogey the 17th and finish the day tied with Young at 11-under. He had shot 73. Young had shot 65. Just like that, the tournament was wide open again.
Sunday got worse before it got better. A double bogey at the fourth, a bogey at the sixth – two behind, two days of pressure bearing down. Most players would have cracked. McIlroy didn’t.
After the bogey at six he set himself a target. Get to 14-under and he’d win. Birdies at seven and eight got him back to level for the day. Then came 12 and 13 – the same stretch that had swallowed him on Saturday – and this time he birdied both. Scheffler was coming. So was Justin Rose. So was Young. McIlroy held firm, finished at 13-under and won by one.
“Good things come to those who wait maybe,” he said afterwards. “Just keep going.”
This from the man who took seventeen years to win his first Masters, and who now had a second one on his back before the first had even gathered dust.
The short game won it when the rest of his game wobbled. McIlroy marked his own card afterwards with refreshing bluntness. Driver: B-minus. Irons: B. Short game and putting: A-plus. “That’s what won me the tournament this week,” he said.
The up-and-down on 16. The chip on 17. The tee shot on 12, where he stood on the tee and waited – just as Tom Watson had advised him in a practice round back in 2009 – until he felt where the wind should be coming from. Then he pulled the trigger. A 9-iron to the heart of the green. Birdie.
His parents were there to see it. They’d missed the Grand Slam win last year and Rory had flown straight home to County Down afterwards. This time he had them in the crowd.
“They thought the reason I won last year was because they weren’t here,” McIlroy smiled. “I said on the putting green that I’m glad we proved that wrong.”
So what now? The question hanging over the rest of 2026 is one of the most compelling in Major Championship history. Can McIlroy complete the calendar-year Grand Slam? All four Majors in a single season?
It has never been done. Not in the modern era. Ben Hogan won three of the four in 1953 but didn’t play the PGA Championship. Tiger Woods held all four at once across 2000 and 2001 – the Tiger Slam – but never in the same calendar year. Nobody has ever won all four in one season.
Three Majors remain. The PGA Championship at Aronimink in May. The US Open at Shinnecock Hills in June – a course McIlroy has already conquered, winning his first Major there in 2011. And The Open at Royal Birkdale in July.
Birkdale is one of the sternest links tests on the rota. When the wind comes off the Irish Sea it separates players quickly and brutally. McIlroy knows links golf. He has the Claret Jug, claimed just down the coast at Royal Liverpool. He knows how to manage his game across four days when the weather bites and the scoring dries up. Right now, you’d back him at Birkdale.
Two green jackets in a row. Six Majors in total. Level with Sir Nick Faldo on the all-time European list – and firmly in the conversation for the greatest European golfer of all time.
“It took me 10 years to win my fifth Major, and then my sixth one’s come pretty soon after it,” he said. “I’m not putting a number on it, but I certainly don’t want to stop here.”
It’s hard to believe McIlroy is still only 36. He’s playing the best golf of his life, and he’s hungry. The years of near-misses at Augusta, the heartbreaks, the questions about whether he’d ever get over the line there – all of it is behind him now.
With three Majors still up for grabs this year, you wouldn’t bet against him writing another chapter in one of the greatest stories golf has ever told.
THE GRAND SLAM RUN
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Aronimink Golf Club, Pennsylvania | 14–17 May
Aronimink hasn’t hosted the men’s PGA Championship since 1962, when Gary Player won the first of his nine Majors. A Donald Ross design, restored to its classic roots, with tight tree-lined fairways and fast, sloping greens. Length off the tee matters but so does precision – Rory has both in abundance. He’s a two-time PGA Champion already (2012, 2014) and arrives as the form player in the world. Scottie Scheffler will defend the title he won at Quail Hollow last year. Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele will fancy their chances too. But this is a course that suits McIlroy’s game down to the ground.
US OPEN Shinnecock Hills, New York | 18–21 June
Where it all began. Rory won his first Major here in 2011 – an eight-shot demolition of the field that announced him as the real thing. Shinnecock is a different beast to the course he conquered that week, but the memories and the comfort with the venue will count. The US Open rewards patience, control and short-game touch — three areas where McIlroy has never been sharper. Bryson DeChambeau, JJ Spaun and Scheffler will be front of mind for most punters, but don’t sleep on history repeating itself.
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP Royal Birkdale, Southport | 16–19 July
The ultimate test. Birkdale is one of the most demanding links courses on the Open rota – when the wind comes off the Irish Sea, the scoring dries up fast. McIlroy has lifted the Claret Jug before, at Royal Liverpool in 2014, and he knows exactly what it takes to win on British links. But he’ll need to manage the draw, the weather and a field that will include every links specialist on the planet. Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and defending champion Scottie Scheffler head a long list of threats.
