Rory McIlroy gets set for latest attempt at the ‘Career Grand Slam’ at Masters 2023

At this year’s Masters, Rory McIlroy hopes to claim his first green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam to finally shrug that monkey off his back that has irked him for so long.

McIlroy is now nine years removed from his last major win, the PGA Championship at Valhalla in Kentucky, which brought his major tally to four after winning The Open earlier that year in 2014, the PGA Championship in 2012 and the U.S. Open trophy in 2011.

The monkey on his back has been to win The Masters, collect that elusive green jacket and complete the career slam, winning all four major championships. A feat that only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods have achieved in the modern era.

There’s no doubt the 33-year-old Northern Irishman has the ability to get it done, having come oh so close last year with a runner-up finish and a total of seven top-10 finishes around Augusta in his career. It’s just whether it all comes together when it’s go time.

Speaking ahead of this year’s event, McIlroy was in a confident mood.

“I’ve been knocking on the door for that fifth one for a while. I feel like I am as good, if not better a player, as I was the last time I won a major championship. So I’m feeling pretty good about it.”

Acknowledging his previous efforts, both good and bad, at a maiden Masters title, the current World No.3 shared an honest assessment of where that has left him.

“I think you have to go through everything, right. Not every experience is going to be a good experience. I think that would lead to a pretty boring life. You have to learn from those challenges and from some of that scar tissue that’s built up.

“I felt last year that I maybe shed some of that scar tissue, and felt like I made breakthroughs. I’m feeling as sort of relaxed as I ever have coming in here, as I feel like my game is in a pretty good place. I know the place just as about as well as anyone.

“But yeah, good experiences, bad experiences, it all adds up at the end of the day, and you probably learn a bit more from those bad experiences, and I feel like I’ve done pretty well at sort of putting those lessons into my play and being better because of them.”

A McIlroy firing on all cylinders will set off alarm bells up and down the range at Augusta National, and with all those past experiences banked that he alludes to, his current form and steely mentality, there’s no time like the present for him to get cooking and get the job done.

“I’ve got all the ingredients to make the pie.

“It’s just putting all those ingredients in and setting the oven to the right temperature and letting it all sort of come to fruition. But I know that I’ve got everything there. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”