Legends say Grand Slam for McIlroy is in lap of golfing gods
Nicklaus and Watson weigh in on Holywood star’s Masters dream
Rory McIlroy rolled up Magnolia Lane in a giant SUV at 10am wearing a Masters green hoodie and a look of grim determination that had little to do with a search for a parking space.
His quest this week is to win the green jacket and become just the sixth man to complete the Grand Slam, and as he headed for the practice range to prepare for his 10th attempt, two of the five immortals who’ve pulled it off were gathering outside the clubhouse to officially start the Masters.
Grand Slam winners Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were joined on the first tee by Tom Watson, who never managed to win the PGA Championship.
Is McIlroy destined to finish his career alongside not just Watson, but Tommy Armour, Raymond Floyd, Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Lee Trevino and forever be left wondering about the one that got away?
Perhaps his five Open titles, his US Open and his two green jackets have eased the pain over the years, but Kansas City man Watson (74) says he has no regrets. McIlroy’s fate, he said, is in the lap of the gods. He made 24 attempts to win the Wanamaker Trophy after completing the third leg of the Slam with that famous US Open win at Pebble Beach in 1982.
He was fifth at Inverness in 1993, but the closest he came was long before he denied Nicklaus at Pebble Beach. He had a five-stroke lead in the 1978 PGA at Oakmont in Pittsburgh but lost out in a three-man play-off, where John Mehaffey beat Jerry Pate at the second extra hole.
But for Watson, the Grand Slam never became bigger than his desire to win another Major.
“It really wasn’t because every time I teed it up in a golf tournament, I was trying to do the same thing,” he said. “I was trying to play my best golf in that tournament. And did it put any pressure on me to win the PGA? No.
“When I played in the Major championships, it elevated my passion, I guess, maybe for that tournament. But not winning the PGA didn’t elevate it any more than a normal Major championship.
“Because when you prepare for a tournament, you want to go in there confident in your golf swing, to know what you’re doing. And you know, it just didn’t work out for the PGA with me.
Divot
“I had a five-shot lead at Oakmont in ’78. Drove it into a divot on the 10th hole with an iron right in the middle of the fairway, and the only place I couldn’t leave it was short of the green, which I did.
“I hit fat out of a divot and left it short of the green. Just to get it on the green, I had to almost take a full swing. I took a full swing, caught it a little bit more and went over the green. Made double-bogey. John Mahaffey made birdie. Now I’m only two shots ahead.
“Got in a play-off, and John won. But that’s kind of the history – my history in the PGA.”
Looking left and right to Player and Nicklaus, he added: “These gentlemen, they got it. They won their tournaments, and it is a feather in your cap when you win all four Major championships. But is it something that I regret? No, not really. If I were destined to win the tournament, I would have won it.”
Nicklaus needed just three attempts to win the first of his three career Grand Slams at the Open in 1966.
Player had also needed three attempts to get the final leg with his 1965 US Open win at Bellerive.
Is McIlroy (34) good enough? The Golden Bear says he is. But the longer McIlroy has to wait, the harder it will become.
“I closed the deal when I was 26 years old and Tiger closed it when he was probably younger than I and Gary I don’t know how old you were,” said Nicklaus. He was 29.
“But as he gets older, it gets tougher because all of a sudden it’s a conversation that Tom had at the PGA and Arnold Palmer had at the PGA.
“Was Tom Watson good enough to win the Grand Slam? Absolutely. Was Arnold Palmer good enough? Absolutely. Is Rory McIlroy good enough? Absolutely. But they’ve got to do it.
“Do I think Rory will win here? Yeah, I mean, you could win this year or you could win next year. He’s just too talented not to. But then again, they were too talented not to as well. You just never know.”
As for the fractured state of the game, all three want reunification. Watson told the Champions Dinner as much.
“I got up and I’m looking around the room, and I’m seeing just a wonderful experience everybody is having. They are jovial. They are having a great time.
They are laughing. I said, ‘Ain’t it good to be together again?’. And in a sense, I hope that the players themselves took that to say, you know, we have to do something.”
“The best outcome is the best players play against each other all the time,” Nicklaus said, revealing he’d sounded out Jay Monahan on the state of negotiations.
“He said, ‘We’re doing fine,’” Nicklaus said. “If Jay thinks we’re doing fine, we’ll get there. And I certainly hope that happens, the sooner the better.”
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