Tiger gives Rory Major reminder

RORY McIlroy is focused on the bigger picture of his career rather than this week’s Masters, despite receiving a vivid reminder of the importance of Major titles from Tiger Woods.

McIlroy needs a victory at Augusta National to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods in having claimed all four Major titles, but is without a win since November 2019 and has slipped to 12th in the world rankings.

Woods claimed his 15th Major title in the 2019 Masters but is absent this year as he recovers from serious leg and foot injuries suffered in a car accident in Los Angeles in February.

McIlroy and world No 2 Justin Thomas are among the players to have visited Woods in Florida since he returned home to recuperate and McIlroy was struck by the 45-yearold’s attitude to Majors compared to regular tournaments.

“I went over to Tiger’s house a few weeks ago and in his family room he’s got his 15 Major trophies and I said, ‘That’s really cool, where are all the others?”’ McIlroy said.

“And he was like, ‘I don’t know. My mum has some, a few are in the office, a few are wherever’.

“That’s all he cared about (winning Majors), so how easy must that have felt for him to win all the others?

“He talked about these are the four weeks that matter, so the weeks that didn’t matter he racked them up at a pretty fast clip.

“If all he cared about was four weeks a year, the other stuff must have just been like practice. That’s a cool perspective to have, right?

“That’s all I could think about on the way home – and I was glad he was OK, too!”

Rory McIlroy