Times-Herald (Vallejo)

Seeking exclusive company

Johnson could become a repeat winner; McIlroy could complete a career Grand Slam

- By Doug Ferguson

>> Rory McIlroy stopped by to encourage Tiger Woods as he recovers from multiple leg injuries and might have come away with some inspiratio­n of his own.

“In his family room he’s got this trophy cabinet and it’s his 15 major trophies,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “I said, ‘That’s really cool. Where are all the others?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’”

Woods — who isn’t playing this year because of injuries from a car crash in February — has 82 victories on the PGA Tour alone, a record he shares with Sam Snead, and more than a dozen others from the European, Asian, Japan and Australian tours.

“He said, ‘Yeah, my mom has some, and a few are in the office and a few are wherever,’” McIlroy said. “I was driving home and I was thinking, ‘That’s all he cared about. So how easy that must have felt for him to win all the others.’ That was just always in my mind. He talked about, ‘These are the

four weeks that matter.’”

Only one week matters to McIlroy at the moment, and not just because it’s the first full week in April at Augusta National.

The Masters — Woods has five of those silver trophies — is the one major keeping McIlroy from joining the most elite company in golf by completing the career Grand Slam. Woods was the most

MASTERS>>PAGE2

 ?? DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, hits from the bunker on the 13th hole during a practice round for the Masters tournament on Tuesday.
DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, hits from the bunker on the 13th hole during a practice round for the Masters tournament on Tuesday.

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