Rory McIlroy: ‘I never looked at records, just what I wanted to do myself’

In the coming days, Rory McIlroy could be the only person not contemplating the significance should he take his career to a level that even some of the greats of the game have failed to attain. Winning the Masters alone is all that McIlroy is focused on. So while the 25-year-old could become only the sixth person to complete a clean sweep of major championships should he top the leaderboard next weekend, the scale of such an achievement will be left for others to appreciate. McIlroy prefers to write history rather than worry about it.

He could join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as those who have completed a career grand slam at the first time of asking. Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus took longer to complete the haul, while many legends of the sport – Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo to name but four – found it beyond them.

“I never looked at records,” McIlroy says. “It was just about what I wanted to do myself.

“There is an interview now around with me when I was seven or eight, saying I wanted to win all the majors and be the best golfer in the world. It is what I have always wanted to do but just as me. I never wanted to break records, I never looked at someone and said: ‘I want to do that.’ This was just what I wanted to do; win the biggest tournaments in the world and be the best golfer in the world.”

And now, having risen to the top of the world rankings and with four majors already to his name? “I just want to be the best player that I can be because I know if I do that, it is hopefully going to be better than anyone else.

“It is all self-motivation. I am not looking at other guys on the range. It is all about making myself as good as I want to be and I know if I can do that, there is a good chance I will win golf tournaments and give myself a chance to win majors.”

It is almost lost in this melee that McIlroy is also seeking to win a third major in a row – having followed up his first Open victory at Hoylake last year with a second USPGA success at Valhalla – in itself hardly a straightforward feat. Only Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods have achieved that.

Albeit McIlroy will try his best to avoid it, the frenzied nature of all around him in the coming Georgia days promises to be quite something. Without being disrespectful to other venues, the opportunity to achieve this feat at Augusta National is also pertinent. It would afford McIlroy a lifetime alliance to the Masters venue, beyond that of even its normal champions.

If McIlroy does not win, evidence suggests it will not be on account of this background noise or expectation. More mechanical golfing matters, relating to his approach play and putting, are far more likely to undermine the Northern Irishman. In the past, one bad stretch of holes has fatally undermined his Masters bid, most spectacularly after the Sunday turn in 2011.

“As much as I said about not thinking about history or records, you would still be putting your name alongside those who have won the career grand slam,” McIlroy adds. “I feel like if you win the four majors, you are pretty much a complete player. You have been able to win in different conditions, on different golf courses, different set-ups. It sort of feels like if you can win all four, there is not much you can’t do. You are a complete golfer.

“At Augusta, there is a lot of touch, a lot of finesse. That is the one thing I am trying to learn and get better at, that style of golf where you manage your way around golf courses. Maybe you just need a little more imagination. I think that’s the thing I need if I want to call myself a complete golfer.”

Pressure, meanwhile, may be beneficial.

“It should be, yes,” McIlroy acknowledges. “I guess this is always what I wanted to do. I have been asked before, about being in this position and whether it’s all it is cracked up to be, all that I dreamed of. I guess whenever I was watching golf growing up and saw especially Tiger lifting trophies then going to the next week, you don’t see all of this [MEDIA]stuff but I like it, I embrace it. I enjoy it.

“I enjoy being in this position and think you have to. If you aren’t enjoying being in this position then why have the ambition to be there? It just comes as a result of what you want to do. Being in the spotlight is a good thing because it means that you are playing well, people are interested, that you are doing great things in the game.

“I enjoy my life how it is now. I feel like I can still walk around and do the things that I want to do for the most part. I don’t ever envisage getting to a level where it becomes uncomfortable for me.”

There has, however, been an impact on McIlroy’s relationship with his sport as a result of this rise to prominence. Perhaps it is inevitable, perhaps sad. It is one he is perfectly willing to acknowledge, explaining how the alteration from carefree child genius to the man everyone wants a glimpse of could never be seamless.

“No,” answers McIlroy when asked if his love for golf is the same as it always was. “Because when I was a kid, if I spent a day away from the game, I couldn’t wait to get back. Now I can’t wait for a week off.

“It is nothing to do with the game, I still love the game, love going out playing great golf courses, playing with my friends or my dad. I would be being dishonest if I said my love of the game was the same. I still love the game, I just don’t love it like when it was just pure joy to get on the golf course and play. Now, I can leave the clubs alone for a week and be totally fine. You need that because this can be an intense style of golf.

“Look, I haven’t worked a day in my life. This isn’t work, this isn’t a job. This is just an intense environment that I play in and I never used to play in an intense environment. Sometimes it is just nice to get away from it for a while.

“Back in the day when I was a kid I never wanted to get away from it. I still love the game, hitting balls, practising, just not quite as much as I used to. I love being in contention, I love winning tournaments. This is the only thing I am really competitive at because I know it is the one thing that I am really good at. If I lose or don’t play well I am disappointed. I will let anyone else win at a game of pool if it keeps them happy.”

The most notable success of McIlroy's 2014 arguably was not one of his two majors. Instead, the triumph at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, which came in the immediate aftermath – by the way of days – of his calling off an engagement to the tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. This pointed to an ability to focus solely on 18 holes of golf, a trait precious few – Woods is one – have displayed. Perhaps McIlroy thrives on general excitement.

“I don’t think you have to play with so much of an edge that it gets the better of you. There is a balance there,” McIlroy says. “The Ryder Cup is only three days and it is hard to play with that kind of intensity week in, week out. You are absolutely knackered at the end of a Ryder Cup.

“I feel like Augusta is a little bit the same because mentally it is so demanding. And in a way, I feel like when I play with an edge it focuses you that little bit more. If there is a lot on the line, a lot to play for, it feels like you are a little bit sharper and a little bit more aware. It is probably something to do with adrenalin, everything becomes a bit clearer.

“One slip in concentration there and you can make double bogey very easily. Especially that week, it seems like a double bogey can really drop you down the field. Augusta … if there is any course in the world that you need 100% concentration for four days? It is there.”

McIlroy has not been seen, previously completed commercials and photo shoots aside, since leaving the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month. What comes next promises to be utterly compelling.

“It will be exciting. I’m just not getting ahead of myself.” Everybody else is. Which is a sign of exactly what McIlroy stands on the verge of.

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