\n<\/p>\n
Over the past four days when McIlroy built a six-stroke advantage at halfway without playing at his very best, he showed a freedom that had eluded him for much of his chase to complete a full set of majors.<\/p>\n
“I was glad last year that the whole Grand Slam thing was done because that was what I was chasing,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And now going forward it’s just, you know, everything is icing on the cake or a cherry on top, all gravy, whatever you want to call it.<\/p>\n
“But I feel like I can just go and play my game and have a chance to win a lot more majors.”<\/p>\n
Having watched his absorbing battle with Cameron Young, the plucky and unlucky veteran Justin Rose and world number one Scheffler – who all threatened McIlroy’s title defence – it seemed as though he was relishing the contest.<\/p>\n
It was less stressful than previous years, more a sporting contest to be enjoyed. “I definitely felt more comfortable in the battle this year on the back nine than last year,” McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
“It is a want more than a need. I want to win the biggest tournaments in the world. I want to win Ryder Cups. I want to win majors.<\/p>\n
“At this point in my career, that is what drives me forward. I think it would have really stung if I hadn’t gone on to win this tournament after building such a commanding lead over the first two days.<\/p>\n
“It would have stung, but at the same time I would have dusted myself off and I would have come back for the PGA at Aronimink, US Open at Shinnecock or [Open Championship] at Birkdale or whatever.<\/p>\n
“But it’s such an amazing start to the major season and I can’t wait for what lies ahead.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Over the past four days when McIlroy built a six-stroke advantage at halfway without playing at his very best, he showed a freedom that had eluded him for much of his chase to complete a full set of majors. “I was glad last year that the whole Grand Slam thing was done because that was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}