McEwan: A milestone Rory McIlroy won’t want to celebrate can be his career watershed

Tomorrow (August 10, 2024, if for some reason you’re reading this months from now) is a significant day for golfers. And no, it has nothing to do with it being Kenny Perry’s 64th birthday.

Rather, it marks the beginning of a second decade in Rory McIlroy’s hunt for a fifth major.

The Irishman won the most recent of his four marquee titles on August 10, 2014, capturing the PGA Championship as darkness fell fast at Valhalla. Nobody knew it at the time but the sun had also set on McIlroy’s major ambitions for, at least, the next ten years.

All told, 39 majors have taken place since then, won by 26 different players – 23 of them first-time winners.

Nine of Rory’s peers have won multiple times in that span: Brooks Koepka, five times; Jordan Spieth, three; Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, two apiece.

Of those, Rahm, Morikawa, DeChambeau, Scheffler and Schauffele were still playing amateur golf in 2014.

All of which is to say it has been a long time and much has happened since McIlroy won major No.4. The fresh-faced, mop-haired 25-year-old who heaved the Wanamaker Trophy skywards in Kentucky is now a battle-scarred, greying 35-year-old.

Irrespective of what happens in the remainder of his career, McIlroy will surely know there will forever be a huge question-mark and, perhaps, no shortage of regret that he didn’t make more out of this particular chapter.

As fast as he arrived on the scene, his career has somewhat stalled – at least in the events by which a player of his calibre should be defined – when it should have been pedal-to-the-metal. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison but, between the ages of 25 and 35, Tiger Woods won nine of his 15 majors. The same part of McIlroy’s career has yielded only two, both of which within three months of his 25th birthday.

Through whichever lens you look at it, what should have been the most fertile years of McIlroy’s career have been bewilderingly barren. If it helps, think of it this way: we’ve had six Prime Ministers in the UK since he last won a major. It’s when we start counting it in Popes, that’s when there’s a problem.

Why the drought? The reasons read like a verse from ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’:

Loss of form, brain farts; injured ankles, broken hearts
Swapping caddie, changing coaches; pressure starts to grow.
Getting married, having kids; Chasing distance? God forbid!
LIV Golf, Jay and Greg; Bryson DeChambeau.

I could go on…

The silver lining to this cloud is that there’s still time for McIlroy to come good, to rediscover whatever it is he has apparently lost. Whilst footballers would be dropping down through the divisions at 35, golfers are still in their prime.

Assuming he stays fit and healthy, McIlroy probably has another 50 majors where he can realistically expect to be competitive. Considering he has already played 51 majors, he has, to all intents and purposes, made it to the turn in his career. He’s maybe even on the tenth fairway. That means there’s a lot of golf to be played.

It’s also worth noting that, of the 39 major champions crowned since McIlroy’s drought began, ten were older than he is now – but only one in the last 14. Indeed, the median age of men’s major winners in the last decade is 30.2. But for a 50-year-old Phil Mickelson winning the 2021 PGA and disproportionately tipping the scales, the average would be a lot lower. Again,in the case of those 39 players, 23 were in their twenties at the time they won.

How he makes the next decade work in his favour depends largely on McIlroy himself. Whilst there will be the temptation to make changes, the reality is he doesn’t need to tweak all that much.

With the exception of this year’s US Open, there aren’t many majors he has thrown away. When he’s lost, it has largely been because other people have just played better than him. Cam Smith at the 2022 Open and Wyndham Clark at the 2023 US Open, for instance. That’s golf.

Separating himself from noisy, energy-sapping, extra-curricular nonsense – such as putting himself in the middle of the PGA Tour-LIV Golf omni-shambles – wouldn’t be a bad thing, nor would finally getting over the ‘career grand slam’ hump standing between him and The Masters. It can’t be coincidence that his lean times began when he found himself on the precipice of history. Or maybe it can. Who knows? Only Rory.

If he’s looking for inspiration, perhaps he’ll find it in the words of a man about whom he has read books in the past: the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs.

“You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down.”

Maybe that’s it. As he enters a second decade of a majorless streak, maybe that’s what McIlroy needs more than anything else.

To ‘Think Different’.

The talent has never been in doubt. Perspective and experience have never been as rich in supply.

The last remaining hurdle exists in the space between his ears.

Clear that and let the good times roll.

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Michael McEwan is the 2023 PPA Scotland ‘Columnist of the Year’ and ‘Writer of the Year’

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor