Rory McIlroy: I don’t care about The Open, the Masters is biggest

Northern Ireland golfer says the Augusta
major has the most hype and eyeballs

One-Minute Read

The Northern Ireland golfer, a four-time major winner, was
speaking at a press conference before the Wells Fargo Championship
which starts today in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s McIlroy’s
first tournament since finishing in a tie for fifth at last month’s
Masters.

Quoted by Sports Illustrated, McIlroy said: “The Masters
has now become the biggest golf tournament in the world, and I’m
comfortable saying that.

“I don’t care about the US Open or the Open Championship,
it is the biggest golf tournament in the world, the most amount of
eyeballs, the most amount of hype, everything is at
Augusta.

“For me it’s the most special tournament that we play, and
it’s the one everyone desperately wants to win, but even if I was
going for my first major, it’s still tough to win.”

The 28-year-old is still looking for a victory at Augusta
to complete a career Grand Slam of golfing majors. However, despite
losing the chance to win a first green jacket in April, McIlroy
believes he will one day succeed at the Masters.

He told CNN’s Shane O’Donoghue: “It’ll happen. I truly
believe it’ll happen. I play that golf course well enough, I’ve
five top 10s [finishes] in a row. I’ve given myself the chance, it
didn’t quite work out [this year] but the more I keep putting
myself in those positions, sooner or later it is going to happen
for me.”

After missing out on the elusive win at the 2018 Masters
McIlroy admitted that he found the experience hard to process.
“Probably took me a week to get over it,” he said. “I went back
home and decompressed, binge-watched a couple of shows, read a
couple of books, drank a few bottles of wine.

“I was trying to immerse myself in anything but golf at
that moment. It got to point where [my wife] Erica had to drag me
out of the house and say: ‘We are going to do
something’.”

McIlroy
tees off in the Wells Fargo Championship first round at 12.30pm
today (UK time). Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler and Masters
champion Patrick Reed are also playing in the $7.7m (£5.6m) PGA
tournament at Quail Hollow Golf Course.

The
next golf major is the US Open at Shinnecock Hills GC from 14-17
June with The Open Championship taking place from 19-22 July at
Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland.