Rory McIlroy will be making his 16th attempt to win the Masters, which has eluded him for the entirety of his career. Moreover, the probable victory will break the endless cycle of no major wins, as McIlroy won his last major in 2014 at the PGA Championship. Currently playing at the Valero Texas Open, the 34-year-old is well in contention.
If McIlroy dominates the last two days, he will enter the Masters with his 25th PGA Tour win and a form like no other. The four-time major champion has stated that he will be sticking to his game and not stressing about next week. And although McIlroy may not be thinking about the green jacket, other pros certainly are about him and it. After all, it would complete his career grand slam.
Andrew Johnston believes Rory McIlroy will not win the 2024 Masters
4. Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston: The European pro has been off the course for quite some time now. However, he usually shares his prediction through Today’s Golf, and he has done so on whether Rory McIlroy will win the 88th Masters. Beef said that he thinks that 2024 will be McIlroy’s year, saying, “He seems in a great place on and off the course in 2024, having freed himself of a lot of stresses.”
That being said, however, Johnston doesn’t believe that the Northern Irishman will break his 10-year major drought at Augusta National. Rather, the golf veteran shared that McIlroy may win the PGA Championship again but not the Masters, at least not this season.
3. Curtis Strange: Unlike Beef, Curtis Strange has a different stance on McIlroy’s career grand slam. In an ESPN teleconference, Strange quoted the 34-year-old pro’s mental coach, Bob Rotella. He shared that Bob had a phrase for McIlroy to win the green jacket that said, “‘The mind has to be stronger than the swing’,” indicating that the Irish pro had to be calm and collected at Augusta National, and if he did, he perhaps did have a shot.
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Furthermore, the two-time U.S. Open winner was hopeful that McIlroy could win the Masters. However, he advised McIlroy to clock out the “baggage” of never winning, which he may be carrying into the first major. Strange then recalled Ben Hogan’s advice to Claude Harmon, which is suitable for McIlroy now. He said encouragingly, “‘You look at the grass all week long’. Meaning don’t make eye contact with friends; don’t speak to everybody.”
Tiger Woods is confident that McIlroy will ‘definitely’ win
2. Rocco Mediate: The current PGA Tour Champions player, Rocco Mediate, did not outright show his support for Rory McIlroy. However, while bashing Talor Gooch’s asterisk remark on McIlroy’s probable Masters, he did hint that Mediate does believe that McIlroy has it in him to win the green jacket in 2024.
The 6-time PGA Tour winner blasted the LIV star, claiming, “What has he ever done?” after the former PGA Tour player called out McIlroy’s Masters win as null because the Masters field does not have many golfers from the Saudi-backed league. It certainly seems like Mediate was in full support of the Northern Irishman, perhaps even for him to take home the cup, regardless of what others might think.
1. Tiger Woods: The 5-time Masters winner himself has strong things to say about his business partner and one of his good friends. Last year, after highlighting the Northern Irishman’s T2 finish in the 2022 Masters, the press asked Tiger Woods if McIlroy could win the major before he retired. Woods replied, “It’s just a matter of time.”
So, “whether it’s this year or next, or whenever it comes, he will get it done, and he will have a career grand slam. It will definitely happen,” Woods asserted, and he showed massive confidence in McIlroy to win the green jacket. Unfortunately, last year, the 34-year-old missed the cut. But now he has yet a chance to prove himself and Woods right by winning the 88th Masters.
It certainly seems like the majority of Tour experts and veterans think that Rory McIlroy can win his career grand slam and join the ranks of Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus in completing a grand slam. But to find out whether he can achieve that this year, tune in!
