Grand slam next for McIlroy

It will be back to work for Open champion Rory McIlroy this week as he gets on with the business of being a multiple Major winner.

After filling the Claret Jug more than once on Sunday night as the 25-year-old’s family and friends celebrated his two-shot, wire-to-wire victory at Hoylake that completed the third leg of a career grand slam of Major championships, McIlroy flew into Belfast yesterday with his parents Gerry and Rosie.

He will have one more day at home today in Holywood, County Down, before resuming the day job, with a photoshoot for sponsors tomorrow and some physical testing at the GSK Human Performance Lab in London on Thursday, before returning to the United States on Friday to begin preparations for his assault on Major victory number four.

McIlroy next tees it up on July 31 at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational before he bids to regain the Wanamaker Trophy he won two years ago in the following week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla, near Louisville, Kentucky.

No fanfare, no fuss. Having won the title he craved the most and for the longest, McIlroy left Hoylake with the air of a young man ready to briefly enjoy the moment before closing one chapter of his career and opening the next, the one in which he kicks on and racks up the additional Majors his talent suggests are a matter of when rather than if.

And what a page-turning blockbuster this one was. The Masters meltdown in April 2011 and the redemption that came with his record-breaking victory at the US Open two months later; then with a lick of the fingers and a quick flick of the page we’re into a change of management, a mid-season slump in 2012, a glamorous new girlfriend and a PGA Championship victory at Kiawah Island that sparked an avalanche of titles for the rest of that year. And still it went on, the switch of club and ball manufacturer, the swing troubles and a winless 2013.

At least there was a happy ending, his win at Wentworth in May coming days after his split with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, just as the wedding invitations were posted and now this realisation of a boyhood dream to win the Open.

“It means an awful lot to be the Open champion,” McIlroy said, “it is what every kid dreams of. If they want to grow up playing golf, watching the likes of Tiger Woods, Seve, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson last year. Watching some of the greats of the game win this trophy. To be here with my name on the trophy beside them is something that is very special to me.

“I wanted to be an established Tour player by the age of 25 and maybe win a Major or have chances to win Majors and Tour events.

“To be going to Augusta next year as a 25-year-old and have the chance to win the career grand slam — even I didn’t think it was possible...that is not something I ever imagined.”

Now world No 2, having jumped six places following his Royal Liverpool victory, McIlroy does not just have the top spot in the rankings he last held in March 2013 in his sights, he also has a place among the golfing greats. A victory at Valhalla next month would be Major No 4 but winning the Masters next April will turn this 25-year-old Irishman into a career grand slam winner and a legend of the game.

Nor is that a fanciful pipe dream for McIlroy appears set to start winning Majors on a regular basis and has the game to win at Augusta National.

He had it three years ago but lacked the mental strength required to gain a Green Jacket but this is an older, more mature golfer, focused on a game that once again has become his top priority.

American Rickie Fowler, along with Sergio Garcia, pushed the Holywood golfer hardest during Sunday’s final round only to come up just short for his third top-three finish in the Majors this year.

McIlroy’s peer and rival since the 2007 Walker Cup at Royal County Down certainly thinks he has what it takes to succeed in Augusta.

“I really don’t have any doubt that he’ll win there,” Fowler said of his fellow 25-year-old on Sunday night.

“Definitely fits his game. And I’ve seen him play very well there. It’s just a matter of time.”