Rory McIlroy coming to PGA at Aronimink early? And other questions about the two-time Masters champ

Before anyone gets too heady about the reascendance of Rory McIlroy to the top of the golf world, understand that he blew a record six-shot lead after 36 holes at Augusta National and actually had to come back from two shots down on Sunday afternoon to become the fourth player to win back-to-back green jackets. He also is the first to do it since Tiger Woods in 2001-2002, but that was long before Tiger rolled his car in two separate accidents and now has twice gone to rehab, from where, presumably, he watched Rory reascend Sunday.

Why bring Tiger into this? Because, a few years ago, Rory was supposed to be the Next Tiger. That was a burden he eventually bequeathed to Scottie Scheffler, whose current reign as the World No. 1 has been bettered only by Tiger, who did it twice. And because now, after an 11-year major championship drought that ended in Augusta last year, we once again can discuss Rory challenging Tiger’s collection of 15 majors.

» READ MORE: Rory McIlroy goes back-to-back at the Masters to join Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods

Can’t we? Why not? And, why stop there?

Jack Nicklaus won five of his 18 majors after turning 36. McIlroy has six, and five more would give him 11, but McIlroy, just like everyone else 50 years younger than Nicklaus, looks far better and is far fitter than Nicklaus was in 1976. Nicklaus, still golden but a bit paunchy, won his 18th major, the Masters, at the age of 46.

Arthritic lefty Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship when he was 50.

McIlroy is tied for 12th with six, but he needs just four more to hit double digits, which would put him fourth behind Walter Hagen. Six more puts him third. Seems realistic.

Less realistic: McIlroy would pass Tiger if he wins one major per year until he is 46, when Nicklaus won his 18th. He would pass both Tiger and Jack if he wins one major each year until he is 50, when Mickelson won his sixth.

Nobody wins a major every year, right? Right. But sometimes they win a couple. Scheffler did it last year, at the PGA Championship and the British Open.

McIlroy can do it as soon as next month, in Philadelphia’s backyard.

McIlroy took three weeks off between the Players Championship and the Masters and dissed the Valspar, the Valero, and the Texas Children’s Houston Open — “I honestly just don’t like the three tournaments leading up to this event” he told reporters Friday — and, in the two weeks before the Masters, visited and played Augusta National three times. He’d have breakfast, drop off his 5-year-old daughter Poppy at school, drive to his private jet, tee off before lunch, then be home in Florida in time for dinner. Must be nice.

At any rate, it sounds like the Truist Championship in Charlotte, which happens the week before the PGA Championship, might have to do without McIlroy, because he’s going to be flying to Philly. As he lounged in his jacket Sunday evening, McIlroy told reporters that he’d once told Nicklaus that he preferred to play the week before a major. Nicklaus scoffed.

“When I’ve talked to Jack Nicklaus over the years [about] how he prepared for majors, he would go the week before, and he would simulate a tournament,” McIlroy said. “He’d play one ball for four days, shoot scores. So then when he got to the tournament, it was sort of — it felt second nature to him.

“I did a little bit of that leading up to here, and I think that’s certainly a good way to prepare going into the next majors.”

Philadelphia International Airport might be seeing quite a bit of McIlroy next month, because the next major will be the PGA, from May 14-17 at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa.

The Truist is a big-money Signature Event, and McIlroy played in it last year when the Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted it as a one-off. Players used to be fined for missing more than one of the Signature Events. McIlroy’s truancy in 2023 cost him $3 million. However, the PGA Tour abolished the Rory Rule last year.

There are complications. Rory can’t just show up tomorrow. Aronimink has been closed since November in preparation for the tournament. A course official last week told The Inquirer that the course likely would not be open for visits from the pros until the week before the tournament.

Maybe it won’t matter much. The track hasn’t changed much since 2018, when McIlroy took fifth at the BMW Championship. Nevertheless, that was McIlroy’s only visit, and Augusta National certainly hadn’t changed much since 2025, and he burned a heck of a lot of jet fuel commuting to Georgia.

In short, given Rory’s new policy and his access to Air McIlroy, he surely will be seen on Saint Davids Road several days before the rest of the circus hits town.

Not among the oddsmakers. On Sunday night, Scheffler was generally around +350, McIlroy about twice that. Scheffler had a great weekend and finished second at the Masters.

Those odds could change. McIlroy will surely play again at least once before the PGA, in the Cadillac Championship, a Signature Event in Florida at the end of April held two weeks before the PGA. A strong showing at Trump Doral might encourage the doubters — not that any of the principles Sunday finished with a flourish.

Scheffler was one of five players who flinched late Sunday either on No. 17 or No. 18. He needed a birdie on the last hole to reach 12 under, which was McIlroy’s winning score, but Scheffler shorted his approach and missed the green. That left him two strokes behind. Justin Rose, Cameron Young, and Russell Henley all crumbled on either a tee shot or an approach shot on either 17 or 18. McIlroy wobbled, too: His approach missed the 17th green, then his drive missed the entire 18th hole and he had to hook an 8-iron out of the pine straw on the 10th to get back in play. A bogey won the jacket.

In the end, though, Rory had a little more than Scottie, and that’s sort of been the case lately.

Since the Tour Championship in August, Scheffler has accumulated about 20 more World Golf Ranking points than McIlroy. However, in September, McIlroy accumulated 3.0 points at the 2025 Ryder Cup to Scheffler’s 1.0 (Scottie beat Rory in singles) and Europe defended the Cup it won in 2023 (when McIlroy accumulated 4.0 points and Scheffler again got 1.0).

Significantly, the Ryder Cup was played on Long Island at Bethpage Black, a rare Northeast venue for PGA Tour events with its peculiar turf, grasses, and fans. McIlroy has four top 20s and that stellar showing at Bethpage in his last six big events in the Northeast. Scheffler finished tied for seventh at the U.S. Open at Oakmont last year, but he doesn’t have much of a track record north of the Mason-Dixon line outside of the Travelers Championship, which he won in 2024, and where both he and McIlroy play well.

This returns us to the Nicklaus/Woods debate.

Some believe, erroneously, that Nicklaus’ 18 major titles and 73 PGA Tour wins cement the Golden Bear as the best ever. Others believe, logically, that Woods’ 15 major titles and record-tying 82 PGA Tour wins are more significant. The logic: Woods played against far better overall competition, far better elite competition, and was far, far better than most of that competition for years at a time.

Which brings us to Rory and the other Euros.

McIlroy now has six major championships. Last year in Augusta he completed a career modern grand slam, joining just five other players; four Americans and Gary Player, who is South African. McIlroy also has two Players Championship wins, which is golf’s best tournament; 30 total PGA Tour wins; and 15 other wins on the DP World Tour besides major championships, which count as DP wins.

That makes him the best, by a mile.

With all due respect to ancient Harry Vardon and charismatic Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo really is Rory’s only comparable talent. Faldo also won six majors, which earned him knighthood, had nine total PGA Tour wins, with 24 other DP World Tour wins.

To be fair to Faldo, in his era — effectively, 1981-97 — European players tended to remain in Europe, which diminished chances to win PGA Tour events.

However, unlike Faldo, who has the shoulders of an NFL linebacker, in his era, most golfers tended to have the shoulders of Davis Love III.

Tiger changed everything in 1996. Perhaps the most athletic golfer in history — yes, it’s a low bar — Tiger inspired other athletes to golf. Tiger was a hero to kids like McIlroy. Suddenly, American brutes like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau were wearing golf gloves instead of shoulder pads. That trio has nine majors among them. These are Rory’s contemporaries.

Faldo’s contemporaries? Colin Montgomerie.

McIlroy’s Ryder Cup performance slightly outpaces Faldo’s, in that McIlroy has won 56.6% of his possible points, while Faldo has won 51.2%. But that can be arbitrary, too, since the players don’t control who they play against; captains do. Still, among Euros who have played at least 30 matches, McIlroy ranks seventh; Faldo, ninth.

McIlroy and Team Europe are 6-2 in his Ryder Cup appearances. Faldo was 4-1-6, though rules stipulated that Europe would retain the Cup after the 1989 tie.

Perhaps this Rory adoration is simply recency bias, a warm feeling for a nice guy in the green afterglow of golf’s best week. Faldo did, after all, compete against a waning Nicklaus and prime Greg Norman, David Duval, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood, and Ernie Els.

If it’s biased, then so be it. Today, for me, the Northern Irishman rules the Euros.

Come mid-May in Philly, perhaps he’ll rule all of golf.