Rory McIlroy heads into this week’s Open Championship declaring he does not want to one of golf’s ‘one hit Major winning wonder’s’.
McIlroy is among nine players in succession, since Graeme McDowell captured the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. to have won their first Major.
Rory McIlroy looking forward to breaking clear of 'The One Major Winner's Club'. (Photo - Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
The current World No. 2 arrived at Royal Lytham and St. Annes last Thursday and spent two days refamiliarising himself with the Lancashire links gem where he had finished third in both the 2006 and 2007 Lytham Trophy.
But it’s the incentive of breaking clear of McDowell and those seven other Major winners that will be driving McIlroy to hopeful success this Sunday.
“It would be my biggest achievement in golf,” he said in an interview with BBC Five Live.
“To win that first Major was very important, and to move to World No. 1 in the middle of the year there was nice but to win the Open Championship and that second Major would definitely mean more to me than winning that first one.
“And it will show people I am not a one hit wonder and it will prove to myself I can win a number of them, and it would be nice to get off that number a few guys are stuck on, and then to be able to call myself a multiple Major winner.”
Following the attention that surrounded McIlroy at last year’s Open, and just weeks after he won at Congressional, fellow Irishman Padraig Harrington believes McIlroy will soon capture a second Major Championship title.
“In Rory’s case he’d be under that spotlight anyway as he’s unique and that it was no surprise that he won one,” said Harrington.
“And it won’t be a surprise when he wins two.
“I think for him the great thing is he won his first major at 22 years of age, was it, 22, 21. 22 he won his first major.
“So he’s going to have plenty of years to enjoy majors ahead of him where he ‑‑ I could fully understand that Sandwich would have been a nightmare for him because, as I said, the expectation is very hard to deal with when people want you to win but you feel like they expect you to win. And it’s difficult.
“But the great thing for Rory is he’ll probably play for the next 25 years, four majors a year, so he’ll get well used to it and he’ll be comfortable in that position. And he’ll grow with the experience that it won’t be an issue.
“However I could definitely say for anybody the first time back after winning a major is a big issue and obviously Rory, in particular, because there is massive hype when you win a major at 22 years of age; there’s a lot ahead of you.
“As you guys know, you love to talk about the future. He has a bright future ahead of him.”
