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Phil Mickelson is adamant that Rory McIlroy will win the Masters to complete the career grand slam.<\/p>\nPhil Mickelson is adamant that Rory McIlroy will win the Masters to complete the career grand slam.<\/p>\n
McIlroy needs a victory at Augusta National to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to have won all four major championships.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old blew a four-shot lead after 54 holes in 2011 but Mickelson knows from personal experience that time is still on the side of the four-time major winner.<\/p>\n
Given his own \u2013 so far unsuccessful \u2013 battle to complete the grand slam by winning the US Open, Mickelson was asked what advice he would give McIlroy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, there\u2019s not much advice I can give him,\u201d the 50-year-old said. \u201cThe guy is as complete a player as there is, as well as smart, knowledgeable and works hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he\u2019ll win and complete the grand slam. He\u2019s too great a player not to. There\u2019s nothing that I can really say to help him. He\u2019s had a lot of great opportunities, and he\u2019s going to continue to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played with him today. He\u2019s playing beautifully. I would be shocked if he wasn\u2019t in contention with a great chance on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo whether it\u2019s this year, whether it\u2019s a few months from now, whether it\u2019s a few years\u2026 I remember when I was trying to win a major, any major, and I struggled for many years, but I always knew and believed it would happen, and eventually at age 33 it eventually did (in the 2004 Masters).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has so many majors already and such a strong game that winning a Masters will happen. And when it does, I think he\u2019s going to win a few.\u201d<\/p>\n
After winning the third leg of the grand slam in the 2014 Open Championship, McIlroy has recorded four straight top 10 finishes in the Masters, although his most realistic chance to win ended with a closing 74 when in the final pairing with eventual winner Patrick Reed in 2018.<\/p>\n
McIlroy was poised to enter this year\u2019s Masters in great form and as the world number one, only for the coronavirus shutdown to cause the tournament to be postponed until November.<\/p>\n
Asked if he shared Mickelson\u2019s confidence about his prospects of winning a green jacket, McIlroy said: \u201cI\u2019d like to think so but nothing\u2019s given in this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess there\u2019s no better person to maybe have a chat with than Phil because he broke through here when he was 33 for his first major after knocking on the door for a long time. I\u2019m not quite in that scenario, but I\u2019m looking for my first here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always felt like I had the game to do well around here and to play well. It\u2019s just a matter of getting out of my own way and letting it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as I said, you have to go out and earn it. You can\u2019t just rely on people saying that you\u2019re going to win one. Greg Norman never did. Ernie Els never did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of great people that have played this game that have never won a green jacket. It\u2019s not a foregone conclusion, and I know that. I have to go out and earn it and play good golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think nowadays, with how many great players there are, I need to play my best golf to have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing in McIlroy\u2019s favor is that Bryson DeChambeau is currently dominating the headlines following his dominant victory in the US Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t mind this. This is nice,\u201d McIlroy added with a smile. \u201cIt feels like everything this year is more subdued. It\u2019s more relaxed. That\u2019s the feel for me, anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously Bryson is going to be feeling a little different because the attention is on him and deservedly so coming off the back of a major win and basically disrupting the game of golf over the last few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big story, and I\u2019m just as intrigued as everyone else to see how that unfolds.\u201d<\/p>\n