Rory McIlroy battled through a much-discussed major drought before his Masters triumph last April, although one golf legend now says it will be “tough” for McIlroy to capture more major titles in the future.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, six-time major champ Nick Faldo, who, like McIlroy, starred for the European Ryder Cup team, said it will be difficult for McIlroy to replicate the emotional high he achieved when winning the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam earlier this year.
“It is like climbing Everest, you don’t turn around and say, ‘Let’s go up again next month,'” said Faldo, when asked if he expects McIlroy to win more majors. “There was so much emotion at Augusta, and you cannot reproduce the emotion to win a major like that again, so I think it will be tough for Rory to win another one.”
McIlroy himself has explained the challenges Faldo alluded to.
“Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next,” McIlroy said at the U.S. Open in June. “I think I’ve always been a player that struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament. I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you’ve just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you’ve achieved a goal.”
After he secured the green jacket, McIlroy didn’t win again on the PGA Tour in 2025, although he did win the Irish Open in September and was a key member of the European Ryder Cup team’s win at Bethpage Black.
He’s 36 now and has five major titles, including the slam. And while it’s easy to suggest it would be hard for him to find that drive to win more major titles, as Faldo did, the opposite scenario seemingly could just as easily play out: McIlroy could play free without pressure.
“He’s either going to be disappointed that he’s won 10 or he is going to be ecstatic that he’s got to five,” Faldo said.
In the same interview, while Faldo said McIlroy might be in a tough spot to win more, he raved about the prospects of World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
“Scottie seems to be very clear-headed right now,” Faldo said. “He’s in that wonderful moment where he trusts his game 100 percent. It’s like Tiger was. Scottie’s in that lovely mindset and routine of going to every tournament thinking, ‘How do I find a way to win this?’ Whereas other guys are just trying to get to Sunday. Some guys are choking on Thursday, but Scottie is choke-free at the moment, which is amazing.”
You can read the full Belfast Telegraph story with Faldo here.
As for McIlroy, you can see him in action this week. He’s teeing it up as the headliner at the Australian Open.
