SportsBoom<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s competition, of course there is. I mean, Scottie Scheffler is going to get better as the season goes on. Xander\u2019s going to get better as the season goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
But The Masters and Augusta National had long been Rory\u2019s White Whale, and McGinley believes that the pressure will be reduced when he arrives on site for the next major championship, with the US Open \u2013 an event he\u2019s been runner-up in two years in a row, before an emotional homecoming to Royal Portrush for the 153rd Open Championship in July \u2013 an event where he\u2019ll share the spotlight with 2019 winner Shane Lowry.<\/p>\n
\u201cRory is freed up now,\u201d McGinley added. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s been a big, big monkey on his back, and you know the criticism that he\u2019s got over the years has been quite relentless at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody gets more heat than he does, so I think he will feel relieved and a freedom mentally, which means he can perform at his best physically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he went down to his knees it was really the human story of what he did there, of the bouncing back from not winning in regulation play and of not winning Majors and the Masters for those years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are thankful and grateful he did \u2013 I\u2019m delighted, because the game needed that kind of story.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game needed a superstar, something big to happen in it, and a Grand Slam winner is something big.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was as predictable as it was swift, but Rory McIlroy\u2019s Career Grand Slam-completing victory at The Masters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,31175,4287,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-60068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-paul-mcginley","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114420996150627192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}