Rory McIlroy's ex-coach weighs in on his chances of winning the Masters- "Golf's a funny game"

Rory McIlroy's ex-coach, Pete Cowen, has expressed confidence in the Northern Irish player’s ability to win the Masters and complete his career Grand Slam. Currently ranked World No. 3, McIlroy has won four Majors in his career but has yet to add the prestigious Masters trophy to his collection.

Despite not winning a Major since 2014, McIlroy has had close calls, including narrowly missing out on winning the US Open in 2024. Recently, Pete Cowen discussed McIlroy’s game in an interview with Bunkered.co.uk, expressing confidence in McIlroy’s chances of winning the Masters soon.

Cowan acknowledged that "golf is a funny game" and that anything can change at any moment. To illustrate his point, he referenced Xander Schauffele, who, despite being one of the top-ranked golfers in the world, took almost a decade since turning pro to win his first Major in 2024.

Interestingly, Schauffele went on to win two Majors in the same season, claiming the PGA Championship and The Open Championship.

Speaking of Rory McIlroy, Cowen said:

"If I had to put money on it, I’d say yes, but golf’s a funny game. You get a good break and all of a sudden you could win two or three in a row like Xander, but it gets harder. He wins big tournaments in any case. It’s a smaller stage. As the stage gets higher, the more difficult and the more stage fright you get.

"You’ve got to look at it and say when the stage gets that high, like on a major because that’s the highest stage he can hit, sometimes you get a bit of stage fright. Everybody does. Some players can put the blinkers on all the way round for five hours but a lot of people can’t put the blinkers on. You’ve got to win again, you’ve got to restart," he added.

Rory McIlroy's best finish at the Masters was in 2022 when he tied for second place. McIlroy has won the PGA Championship twice, in 2012 and 2014, and the Open Championship in 2014. His first Major victory came in 2011 when he won the US Open.

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"There’s a lot of pressure on Rory"- Pete Cowen on golfer's miserable outing at The Open Championship 2024

In the same interview, Pete Cowen spoke about Rory McIlroy's disappointing performance at the 2024 Open Championship. After narrowly missing the title at the US Open, McIlroy competed in The Open Championship, the final Major of the year, hoping to end his decade-long winless streak in the Majors. However, he shot rounds of 78 and 75, missing the cut.

Cowen reflected on McIlroy's outing at The Open, acknowledging that the pressure the golfer felt significantly impacted his performance. Commenting on McIlroy's struggles, Cowen said:

“There’s a lot of pressure on Rory. He did get the worst part of the draw but you did think he’d have been able to manage his game around there. If you hit some wild shots around there, you’re going to get penalised badly."

“The longer the time span is between majors, the harder it gets. It’s like winning again, you’ve got to start again almost, reset. That’s the problem with him. They put so much pressure on him winning the Masters and the Grand Slam," he added.

Since turning pro in 2007, Rory McIlroy has played in 63 Majors, making the cut in 51 of them. In 2024, he tied for 22nd place at the Masters and tied for 12th at the PGA Championship. He finished in solo second place at the US Open but missed the cut at The Open Championship.