Rory McIlroy’s Masters win had unexpected beneficiaries

FLOURTOWN, Pa. — Elite professional golfers never doubt their ability. As Justin Thomas tells it, the world’s best are prone to downplaying their accomplishments lest they let their irrational confidence break contain.

But even for future World Golf Hall of Famers, some feats, those of legends known by one name who etched their name into history long before these greats were born, are hard to fathom achieving. The sheer weight of them and their historic nature make conjuring the image of yourself summiting that mountain nearly impossible to bring into focus.

These are the achievements of Jack, Player, Hogan and, of course, Tiger.

This generation of stars grew up on Woods. His historic 2000 season changed the trajectory of professional golf forever. Ask them to recall a favorite tournament and they almost all involve Woods.

Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler and others hold Woods as a friend and a contemporary. But they also revere him and his monumental accomplishments in the game. When players talk about the feats of Woods — 82 wins, 15 majors, the Tiger Slam — they speak of wanting to match those feats but do so with a wistfulness, like children who know their own limitations but hope to still find a way to shatter that ceiling.

The career Grand Slam used to be in that category. When Tiger Woods is the only person to do something in 60 years, the potential to achieve it understandably seems low. Just look at the names who haven’t achieved it: Arnie, Phil, Hagen, Nelson, Snead, Watson, Trevino, Els.

Irrational confidence is a trademark trait of professional athletes, but even that has its limits. Some dreams are meant to stay just that, except for the chosen few.

But Rory McIlroy’s thrilling Masters win, which saw him become the sixth golfer in history to win the career Grand Slam, might have put that feat in a new light.

“I think you realize how hard it is,” Xander Schauffele said Wednesday ahead of the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club. “It took him 11 years, and [Jordan Spieth] is the next closest, and then everyone else before that had like three years before they clipped it. One, getting yourself in position to do it would be awesome. I’m far away. Closer than some, but I still feel far away. I still need to win another major before — I should say the correct major before I’m in the talks of it. It’s extremely motivating. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

“Far away,” but doable.

McIlroy vanquishing his demons and “defeating his own mind” doesn’t make the career Grand Slam more attainable than it was before he beat Justin Rose in a playoff and collapsed on the 18th green at Augusta National.

But watching one of your peers achieve something you’ve previously only read about or vaguely remember seeing on TV as a kid makes it feel more real. It’s no longer something Tiger and Jack did years ago, but something you just witnessed, something you now feel you can reach out and grab if your game is sharp enough in the right moments.

“Obviously, Rory winning the Grand Slam was huge,” Justin Thomas said. “It was inspiring to me. Obviously, it’s not like I didn’t realize I wanted to win a grand slam before that, but just that it’s even more motivating.”

It’s hard for something to feel like a realistic goal when more people have walked on the moon or been to the Challenger Deep than achieved the thing you’re chasing. But McIlroy’s peers now see what’s possible. The arc of a golf life is long, and even the biggest dreams — those reserved for a rare few in the game’s pantheon — can become reality. Grand visions aren’t destined to be ghosts you chase after.

For Jordan Spieth, who will make his ninth run at the career Grand Slam next week at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club, McIlroy’s triumph and his journey to the destination spoke to the dreamer in him — showed him that sometimes all it takes is time, perseverance and belief.

“Not only did he complete it,” Spieth told CBS’ Amanda Balionis after the final round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. “But the time it took to complete it. It was obviously a very challenging week for him. It was harder than anybody maybe ever to win a Masters. To be that far form his most recent major as well, and then to go and do it, I mean, it was very inspiring.”

McIlroy knows Spieth’s plight well. The gravity of an achievement of that magnitude is impossible to ignore. It’s there every year when you step on the tee.

“As much as you try to get yourself in the right frame of mind to just try to win the golf tournament and then let everything else happen, it’s in there,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Consciously or subconsciously, you feel that. I said this to people — the worst I felt on Sunday at Augusta was probably when I holed the birdie putt on 10 to go four ahead because I’m like, ‘Oh, I really can’t mess this up now.’ There’s that pressure.

“You know that you’re not just trying to win another tournament, you’re trying to become part of history, and that has a certain weight to it. I’ve certainly felt that at Augusta over the years. I’m sure Jordan has felt that a bit going into each PGA that he’s had a chance to do the same thing.”

McIlroy’s achievement has altered what his peers believe is possible. But it also might have unlocked something in McIlroy, who, for the first time in 11 years, will arrive at a major without facing questions about his drought.

“It probably will feel a little bit different,” McIlroy said of heading to Quail Hollow next week after winning the Masters. “I probably won’t be quite as on edge as I have been for the last few years when I’ve been at major championships. I’ll probably be a little bit better to be around for my family, and I’ll be a little more relaxed. I think overall it will be a good thing.”

A weight that has weighed him down is no longer. For McIlroy, all that’s left is the golf.

For those motivated and inspired by watching him summit the mountain, hoping to follow in his historic footsteps, their work is just beginning.