Rory McIlroy’s three-year hiatus from the major honours board has led a few pundits to suggest that he is now back among the also-rans and not a contender for top honours.
While that talk would seem folly, there is a sense that the Northern Irishman is a victim of his own incredible success at such an early age. Winning the Dubai Desert Classic as a 19 year old made people sit up and take notice, and the fact he had three top-three finishes in the majors before his 22nd birthday proved he was the real deal.
Triumph can come from adversity, and the way in which the County Down native bounced back from a disastrous final-round meltdown at the 2011 Masters to win the US Open by eight shots just a few weeks later showed that he had the mental strength to be a great of the game.
He followed that up by claiming the US PGA Championship the following year, before a change of clubs led to a relatively poor 2013 campaign by his previous high standards.
What happened in 2014 was nothing short of sensational, as he won the European Tour’s flagship event – the BMW PGA Championship – just days after a very pubic separation from tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. He then won the Open Championship, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and a second US PGA Championship back to back. Although that remains his last major triumph, McIlroy has recorded six more top-10s without really threatening to get over the line.
Despite being only 28, injuries have started to creep into his game, most significantly a rib injury caused by testing new clubs over the winter that has hampered his game for much of this year.
A lack of confidence with the putter has also been of concern, and that is one area that he must work on to put himself back in the frame for the biggest events.
Golf worldwide is in rude health, with a crop of young players that seem to have smoothed the transition from the Tiger Woods years, and McIlroy is very much part of the picture. The likes of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Hideki Matsuyama may have stolen his thunder at the moment, but he is not that much older than the trio and, with many years of top golf left in him, the odds of McIlroy winning a major are still good.
It seemed as though McIlroy was set to take over the golfing world after his 2014 heroics, and he has won plenty of tournaments over the past three years, including the 2016 FedEx Cup. While the $10m bonus would have been very welcome, it is his record in the majors that will define the former world number one’s career, and he will deem it a failure if he does not go on to claim many more.
It will be tough, as the standard seems to rise every year, and another player emerges, and it is open to debate whether Woods would have garnered 14 if today’s stars had been around 20 years ago. McIlroy is unlikely to match Woods’ record, while Jack Nicklaus’ total of 18 may never be beaten, but the best years of his career could still be ahead. And, with the weight of expectation maybe now not as great, expect the man who has 22 professional wins on his record to add many more in the coming years.