Video emerges of Rory McIlroy mocking Patrick Cantlay\u2019s pre-shot routine during the Ryder Cup<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t realise this,\u201d McIlroy said Tuesday at Pebble Beach Golf Links, \u201cbut I flew back the day after on the Monday, and I basically didn\u2019t see my golf clubs since like [after] the playoff and I saw that my 7-iron was missing. I was like, that\u2019s a pretty important club. Sean had already given it to the club; he just didn\u2019t tell me. That\u2019s fine, I\u2019ll get a new 7-iron. If there was one I was going to give the club, it was probably going to be that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning the Masters capped off an incredible early season stretch for the Northern Irishman, who is making his season debut this week on the PGA Tour. He is the defending champion of this week\u2019s $US20 million signature event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and in March he also won his second Players Championship in a playoff over eventual US Open winner J.J. Spaun.<\/p>\n
Predictably, McIlroy was drawn into the recent debate over whether or not the Players should be classified as a major championship after the PGA Tour promoted its flagship event with the words, \u201cMarch is going to be major.\u201d The play on words was obvious. It also seemed inspired by the PGA Championship\u2019s slogan since it moved to May: \u201cThis is Major.\u201d<\/p>\n
A five-time major winner, McIlroy, 36, wasn\u2019t on board with the idea of deigning to call the Players a major.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I\u2019d love to have seven majors instead of five, that sounds great,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cI think the Players is one of the best golf tournaments in the world. I don\u2019t think anyone disputes that or argues that. I think from a player perspective it\u2019s amazing. I think from an on-site fan experience it\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s an amazing golf course, location, venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut \u2026 I\u2019m a traditionalist, I\u2019m a historian of the game. We have four major championships. If you want to see what five major championships looks like, look at the women\u2019s game. I don\u2019t know how well that\u2019s (gone) for them. But it\u2019s the Players. It doesn\u2019t need to be anything else. I would say it\u2019s got more of an identity than the PGA Championship does at the minute. So from an identity standpoint, I think the Players has got it nailed. It stands on its own without the label, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what is the identity of the PGA Championship? \u201cI think \u2018Glory\u2019s Last Shot,’\u201d he said, referring to the PGA\u2019s former slogan. \u201cI think it needs to go back to August.\u201d<\/p>\n
As significant as his victory at Augusta National was, McIlroy said he doesn\u2019t think about that magical April day that often. \u201cOnly when I\u2019m reminded or only when I see something or I\u2019m going over to [CBS broadcaster] Jim Nantz\u2019s house later; I\u2019m doing an interview in the green jacket,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s done, it\u2019s wonderful, I\u2019m happy that it\u2019s over in a way, but I want to move on, and I\u2019ve got more goals and there\u2019s more things I want to try to accomplish and achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another \u2018other\u2019 significant achievement last year was leading Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York. McIlroy had said after the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome that winning on the road is one of the more difficult achievements in sports.<\/p>\n
So, which was more difficult, winning the Masters or the Ryder Cup?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they were different,\u201d he said after a pause. \u201cThe Masters was more me against myself, and the Ryder Cup was me against 50,000 New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fulfilling the customary tradition that calls for each Masters champion to donate a club to Augusta National Golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[240937,4225,64,198826,63,755,138747,24495,44,186140,11881,756,85],"class_list":["post-472328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-7-iron","tag-article","tag-au","tag-augusta-national","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-masters","tag-news","tag-pebble-beach","tag-pga-championship","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}