Rory McIlroy was stumped.
After winning the Masters and achieving the career Grand Slam, McIlroy has said he’s accomplished everything he wanted in his career. So during his pre-tournament U.S. Open press conference Tuesday at Oakmont, he was asked if he has a five-year plan for his next chapter.
“I don't have one,” the 36-year-old said. “I have no idea. I’m sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point. Yeah, I have no idea.”
The Masters had always eluded McIlroy. He had a series of struggles in Augusta after his final-round 80 in 2011, but this year, on his 11th try, he finally became the sixth player to win all four majors. Now, his mindset has changed.
“Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters,” he said, “but you don't think about what comes next.
“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.”
Since slipping on the green jacket, the world No. 2 has made four starts, placing T12-T7-T47-MC. However, he’s been focusing on his life off the course, doing things like taking trips, spending time with his family and playing tennis. He feels he deserves the downtime.
“I think it’s trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago,” he said. “Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working. I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labor come to fruition and have everything happen.
“But at the same time, you have to enjoy that. You have to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that and I will continue to do that.”
With still two majors left this season, and a little less than half of the PGA Tour schedule yet to be played, it’s hard to imagine Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus having the same attitude as McIlroy. They always had a clear objective: beat everyone else on the golf course—and collect as many major championships as possible.
McIlroy is thinking more short-term, though.
“At some point,” the Northern Irishman said, “you have to realize that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season, here (U.S. Open), Portrush (the British Open), Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things that I’m sort of looking at for the rest of the year.”
But regardless of how he fares in those events, it seems the five-time major champion is content with how his career panned out.
More U.S. Open on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy ‘Not Sure’ of New Career Goals After Completing Career Grand Slam.
