Rory McIlroy: Completing Grand Slam gets tougher each year

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland tees off at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. (Getty)

In two Sundays, Rory McIlroy can make golf history in winning the Masters. He would become the sixth man in golf history — joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen — to complete the career Grand Slam.

This will be the Ulsterman’s third crack at completing the quartet, with the window opening after winning the 2014 British Open to have captured the game’s oldest major, the U.S. Open in 2011 and the PGA Championship, which he won for the second time in 2014.

So far, no luck at Augusta National, where McIlroy cost himself the green jacket in 2011 with a disastrous 10th hole in the final round. He eventually turned a four-shot lead after 54 holes into a difficult loss with a final-round 80. Now, facing a younger crop of peers hungry to stock their trophy cases with major titles, McIlroy recognizes the task of finishing off the career Grand Slam is only getting tougher.

“It’s a motivation, to be able to put your name alongside those five guys,” he said to the Mirror in the U.K. “But I think that with each and every year that passes that I don’t, it will become more difficult for me.”

The 27-year-old has drawn a little understanding of the added challenge the Masters now represents from Phil Mickelson, who is the only other active player who is one piece away from the career Grand Slam. Mickelson needs to win the U.S. Open to do it, finishing second there a record six times.

“I sort of feel a little bit like what Phil goes through when he goes to the U.S. Open, but at the same time I haven’t finished second at Augusta six times,” McIlroy said. “So I can only imagine what was going through his head when he turned up at a U.S. Open.”

However, McIlroy remains focused on trying to snag a fifth major title — one that would put him in a whole new level of company.

“You just want to beat the guys that you’re playing against,” he said, “and, if you do that, you know that all this other great stuff comes along with it.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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