By winning back-to-back Masters, Rory McIlroy confirmed that 2025 wasn’t one last hurrah in his career.
He became the first player in golf’s history to win multiple majors, go 10 years without winning one, then win multiple majors again. McIlroy is back, and now the question has shifted from “will he ever win again?” to “how many will he win?”
By winning six majors, McIlroy moved into the company of the all-time greats of the game. He’s now level with Phil Mickelson, Lee Trevino, and Sir Nick Faldo, and is tied for the second most major wins by a European player with Faldo.
But looking up the major wins leaderboard, there’s still a long way to go until the top. Jack Nicklaus’ major wins record of 18 looks untouchable, but McIlroy could certainly climb some more.
Rick Shiels gave his thoughts on just how high the Northern Irishman could climb.
Rick Shiels says Rory McIlroy could win the third-most majors ever
McIlroy set his sights on the double Career Grand Slam, which would require him to win every major twice. He still has the US Open and the Open Championship to win again, so that would bring his tally to at least eight.
But he also said that if he can compete at any major deep into his career, it’s The Masters. It’s clear that he does not expect this to be his final win at Augusta. And Shiels agrees.
Speaking on the Rick Shiels Golf Show, he said, “I think realistically, he could comfortably in the next 10 years get into third place. I don’t envision him getting to 15. And I don’t envision him getting to 18. Was it 11 years he went without winning a major, which is wild!
“I mean now, the confidence this must give Rory. Certainly at Augusta and The Masters. He knows that he has limped over the line to some degree the last two Masters and won them. If he turned up with his game, he could win three, four, five, six in a row.
“The stats show so much that golf course suits him. People have said that for donkey’s years and now he’s starting to prove it to himself, that is dangerous. That is a really dangerous Rory McIlroy. He knows now that his B game can win the green jacket.”
To get to third on the all-time list, McIlroy would have to win another six majors. That seems a little out of reach. But he’s added two in as many years, so who knows!
Rory McIlroy said he knows how many majors he wants to win
For the first time since completing the Career Grand Slam last year, McIlroy outlined a clear aim of his. He told Fried Egg Golf in March that he wants to join Woods and Nicklaus as the only players to win every major twice.
McIlroy also said that he has a number of majors in mind, but he wouldn’t say what that number is. The 36-year-old said, “I’ve got the five majors, you know, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that I could win every major twice, which would be a really cool thing to win the grand slam twice.
“I’ve always been very hesitant to put a number on it because if you don’t get to that number, does that mean you’re a failure? Does that mean that you haven’t done what you set out to achieve?
“But then at the same time, if you put a number out there, I’m not saying that I’m gonna put a number on it, but internally, if I have something I want to do and I don’t quite get there, but I at least finish a little further ahead than where I do right now, then it was worth trying to get there.
“So I think that’s where I’m at. Are there a certain number of majors I’d like to win? Yes. Am I going to put that number out into the world? Probably not, because I don’t need my goal to become other people’s goal, a little bit like what the Masters really became for me over these last 10 years.
He continued: “I want to leave a legacy in the game and I’ve talked about wanting to be the best European that’s ever played the game. People have different barometers about what that is, but it’s really like [Nick] Faldo and Seve [Ballesteros].
“I feel like in the game I’ve been able to pass a lot of the things that they did, but then there’s probably other things that I need to do to cement my place in that spot.”
It’s nice to see a reinvigorated McIlroy after his post-Masters struggles last year. We should be getting the very best out of him moving forward!
