No major worries for relaxed McIlroy

Rory McIlroy insists he will not lose any sleep over his major championship drought, even if it continues for the rest of his career.

McIlroy won four major titles by the age of 25 and needs victory in the Masters to become only the sixth player in history to complete a career grand slam, but has not tasted victory in one of the game’s biggest events since 2014.

The former world No 1 began the final round of this year’s Masters three shots off the lead and closed to within a shot of eventual winner Patrick Reed after two holes, but faded badly with a closing 74 at Augusta National.

And after missing the cut in the US Open with rounds of 80 and 70 at Shinnecock Hills, the 29-year-old has just two chances remaining this season to avoid extending his winless drought in the majors to four years.

“If I didn’t win another major for the rest of my career nothing is going to change in my life,” McIlroy said ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Ballyliffin.

“Obviously I don’t feel like I’ll have fulfilled my potential. But at the same time there’s other things in my life that are more important than golf. I’d be disappointed [to not win another major], but again it’s not going to change things. I don’t panic. It doesn’t keep me up at night.

“I just need to give myself chances.

“I was proud of myself just to get into the final group at the Masters this year. I didn’t have a good Sunday. But I would have needed something pretty special to beat Patrick, anyway.

“I’ve got two more chances this year to hopefully play myself into contention. That was my goal.

“My goal this year it wasn’t to win majors. It was just to give myself a chance and to put myself in positions to see how I fair.

“I did that at Augusta. I felt like I learned a bit from it and then hopefully going into Carnoustie [the Open] and Bellerive [US PGA] I can put myself in similar positions.”