Rory McIlroy said he’s at times struggled to find motivation since his Masters win. Scottie Scheffler explained the phenomenon.
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OAKMONT, Pa. — At last week’s RBC Canadian Open, Rory McIlroy, your 2025 Masters champ, still fresh off completing the career Grand Slam, was asked what he’s chasing now.
He could have said winning another major to pass one of his heroes, Seve Ballesteros, and get to six. Or winning two more to pass greats like Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino. He could have said the goal was to win three more and jump Palmer, Snead and Jones. Heck, he could have shot for the sky and said he’s coming for Tiger and Jack.
Instead?
“I don’t know if I’m chasing anything,” McIlroy said. “I would certainly say that the last few weeks I’ve had a couple weeks off, and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be. You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards and it happens, sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.”
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It’s been an odd couple of months for McIlroy since he exorcised those Augusta National demons. After two so-so starts, he tied for 47th at the PGA but made more headlines for a report of a failed-driver test and his refusal to speak to the media about it. He missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open and hasn’t been able to get much of anything going at this week’s U.S. Open, barely making the cut to squeeze into the weekend.
He spoke at his pre-tournament press conference but declined to speak with the media after his rounds Thursday and Friday.
He was asked Saturday, after he shot 74, why he’s skipped media after his past six major rounds.
“It’s more a frustration with you guys,” he said, referring to the media.
He clarified that the report that his driver failed at the PGA irked him — Scottie Scheffler’s driver failed too, but only McIlroy’s name was leaked to the media — and he also reminded he didn’t speak to reporters after his first round of the Masters; he just happens to be skipping media a little more often lately.
“I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do,” he said.
His last question Thursday was what he was looking for Sunday. He paused for a few long seconds before saying, “Hopefully a round in under four-and-a-half hours and get out of here.”
While McIlroy is ready to put this week behind him and was short on context in his brief press conference Saturday, it was Scheffler, the man who has won more majors than another over the past handful of years, who added plenty.
“Winning a major championship in general just takes a lot out of you,” he said Saturday, after he shot 70, when asked about McIlroy. “I think physically and mentally it’s a pretty taxing thing to do. It’s really hard to describe to somebody that hasn’t really lived through it.”
Although he then tried. Scheffler, who won the PGA Championship for his third major title last month, said he woke up the next day and “felt like I got hit by a bus.”
“I felt terrible, and it’s just part of the adrenaline, part of competing for four days on a really difficult golf course, keeping your head in it for 72 holes, which is a long time, and just mentally it’s exhausting,” he said. “Physically it’s a grind, too. So if that’s how I felt after the PGA, I can only imagine how Rory felt after winning the career Grand Slam, and it’s not easy to show up every week out here and play well. This is a very difficult sport. We play very difficult golf courses like this one.”
Scheffler is four over for the week, tied for 11th and eight off the lead held by Sam Burns. Scheffler has a chance Sunday, but it’s not likely. McIlroy is 10 over. He, to put it bluntly, is out of this race.
After his Masters win, McIlroy had three victories in his first six starts of the year. He’ll enter next week’s Travelers Championship winless in his last four stroke-play events.
“We’re all out here just trying to do our best,” Scheffler said. “It’s a hard game, and sometimes it can look easy and sometimes it can feel really difficult, but at the end of the day, we’re just showing up trying to do our best and then we go home.”
On Tuesday, during McIlroy’s pre-tournament press conference, he said he’s taking this post-grand slam life one tournament at a time.
“Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next,” he said. “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. I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I’m allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit.”
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