Rory McIlroy is back at Augusta National for The Masters, having completed the career grand slam at the venue this time last year.
McIlroy is out to defend his title at The Masters this week, where he is chasing a sixth major championship win.
That would level him with fellow legend Nick Faldo, who won The Masters three times and The Open Championship three times.
In contrast, McIlroy has won each of the four major championships at least once, triumphing twice at the PGA Championship.
Recently sharing his verdict on the duo, Paul McGinley said he prefers Faldo’s all-time career over McIlroy’s, which writer Alan Shipnuck strongly disagrees with.
Paul McGinley told he’s wrong to pick Nick Faldo over Rory McIlroy
Reacting to McGinley’s choosing of Faldo over McIlroy, Shipnuck said confidently on Dan on Golf: “Wrong.
“Faldo, of course, has six majors and Rory has five but by any other metric… the time Rory has spent on world number one, the money list on both sides of the Atlantic, the global impact.
“It’s not even close. Faldo is Faldo, he’s an icon, but Rory has done it better for longer. It’s not even close.”
Such a gap can, of course, increase given that Faldo has retired from golf and McIlroy wants to continue for the next 10 years at least.
The Northern Irishman is almost certain to increase his tally of 29 PGA Tour wins, with his English counterpart having ended his career with nine.
Is Rory McIlroy the best European golfer of all time?
Pitting McIlroy against Faldo lends itself to a much broader debate regarding the best European golfer ever.
A handful of players, including that duo, are certainly in contention for that honor, with several others falling just short.
The likes of Bernhard Langer, Sergio Garcia, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have all enjoyed superb careers, but they haven’t hit the heights of the star few.
McIlroy and Faldo are definitely ahead of that pack thanks to what they’ve achieved, but so is Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros.
The iconic figure claimed five major wins during his phenomenal career, which is a tally that McIlroy equalled last year.
Ballesteros is hugely respected and admired for his lasting legacy on the sport, having climbed as high as number one in the world rankings amid his superb efforts on the course.
Both McIlroy and Faldo also managed to hit that number, and so it is perhaps best to appreciate the trio in their own right as opposed to singling out one as the very best.
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