Rory McIlroy is back – like you’ve never seen him before ...Middle East

Rory McIlroy’s return to competitive golf this week is the softest of soft landings following his Masters success. Were he not paired with Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, a rare team event on the PGA Tour, he might be playing a casual round with his old Ireland teammate in their shared backyard of Jupiter, Florida.

Though the arc lights are turned up to full for his re-entry into the golfing atmosphere, the scrutiny is shared once the action starts, which is perfect for a golfer whose fifth major victory at Augusta a fortnight ago provided the game with its most important story since Tiger Woods won a fifth green jacket six years ago.

McIlroy is never less than showbusiness, and the temperature will continue to rise the closer we get to next month’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where the career Grand Slam he sealed in Augusta morphs into the calendar year variety. No golfer has ever won all four majors in the same year. Indeed only Woods has held all four consecutively, across 2000 and 2001.

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Rory McIlroy's Masters victory was an exorcism of sporting trauma

The winner of the Masters is thus always saddled with the calendar slam narrative until he inevitably burns out at the next major, in this case the PGA. Except this is Rory McIlroy, whose star power is such, the theory that he might engage an even higher gear and obliterate the field following his Masters liberation is already currency.

Xander Schauffele, who won two majors last year, gave full expression to the McIlroy as superman concept. “He is a generational talent and to do what he did is incredible for the game of golf. If that was something that was holding him back and now he feels free, that could be a pretty scary thing.

“He has all the tools. I’ve played against him when he’s firing on all cylinders and it’s not fun for me. It’s fun for everyone else to watch but it’s hard to beat. Would I be surprised if he started rattling [more majors] off? No. Am I going to be there to try and stop him? Absolutely.”

In his last great year of accumulation, 2014, McIlroy won three tournaments in a row, including back-to-back majors. He has already won three times in the United States this year to fill out his growing legend. Of those in the post-Woods generation, McIlroy stands alongside Brooks Koepka on five majors. As good as he is Koepka is the anti-hero of the piece and carries neither the romance nor cache of McIlroy.

At 35 McIlroy is not yet at his peak, and bolstered by the Masters experience, the sense is emerging of a golfer who might yet double his major tally. After the PGA at Quail Hollow, where McIlroy won for the fourth time in May last year, eviscerating Schauffele down the stretch, the major stage shifts to the US Open at Oakmont and after that to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for The Open.

Were in not for the freakish run of Cameron Smith on the final day at St Andrews in 2022 and Bryson DeChambeau’s remarkable up-and-down from a bunker at the US Open in Pinehurst last year, McIlroy could easily have had seven majors to his name, which seems a more representative total for the talent he possesses.

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The BBC is the only thing that can stop Rory McIlroy winning Sports Personality

The esteem in which he is held by his contemporaries speaks for itself. As good as world No 1 Scottie Scheffler is, he does not have the appeal beyond the game’s borders that McIlroy enjoys, nor is he the economic engine that McIlroy has become for the sport he plays. When McIlroy wins he takes the whole of golf with him, which explains the scale of the reaction to his victory at Augusta.

Regardless of how he fares at the PGA Championship and US Open, McIlroy is guaranteed an almighty reception in front of the Ulster crowds at The Open. Royal Portrush has sold out all 278,000 tickets, which is the second-highest gate on record after the 290,000 that attended the 150th Open in 2022 at St Andrews.

The R&A’s new chief executive Mark Darbon acknowledges the added frisson born of the connection between the Masters champion and the location of the 153rd Championship. “I think it’s brilliant for the sport of golf, not just our own Championship,” Darbon said. “It was an amazing, emotional win. We’re delighted to see Rory etch his name in the history books.

“I think you’re always thinking through how you manage the crowd effectively, how do you get the experience right for spectators and other groups that we look after at one of these big events. It’s one of the biggest and best sporting events in the world, and so we spend a lot of time in planning.”

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