McIlroy On What He Learnt From Seeing Woods' Major Trophies

The former World No.1 was taken aback after seeing Tiger Woods' 15 Major trophies...

Rory McIlroy "Very Much Against" Premier Golf League
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The former World No.1 was taken aback after seeing Tiger Woods' 15 Major trophies...

McIlroy On What He Learnt From Seeing Woods' Major Trophies

Rory McIlroy recently paid Tiger Woods a visit after his car crash in LA in February.

Rory viewed Woods' trophy cabinet in his family room at Tiger's Florida home, full of the American's 15 Major Championship crowns.

Five Masters trophies, four Wanamaker Trophies , three US Opens and three Claret Jugs.

But missing from the trophy cabinet were another 67 PGA Tour titles, with McIlroy saying that Woods didn't know where they were.

It made him realise the importance Woods places on the Majors - something that clearly resonated with the Northern Irishman.

"I think the circling them on the calendar is probably the best way to go," McIlroy said of targeting Major victories ahead of the 2021 Masters.

"I was thinking about this. So I went over to Tiger's house a few weeks ago to see him, and in his family room he's got his trophy cabinet and it's his 15 Major trophies.

"I said, "That's really cool. Where are all the others? [his PGA Tour trophies]"

"He said, "I don't know." I go, "What?" He said, "Yeah, my mom has some, and a few are in the office and a few are wherever."

"I was driving home, and I was thinking that's all he cared about [the Majors], all he cared about.

Related: The Masters Betting Tips 2021

"So how easy that must have felt for him to win all the others.

"That was just always in my mind, he talked about these are the four weeks that matter.

"So the weeks that didn't matter, you know, he racked them up at a pretty fast clip.

"But I'm just thinking to myself, how easy must that have felt for him if all he cared about were four weeks a year.

"The other stuff must have been like practice.

"So that's a cool perspective to have, right.

"Yeah, that's all I could think about on the way home. And I was glad he was okay, too."

Related: The Masters TV Coverage 2021

McIlroy has won four Majors himself with a trophy cabinet of his own featuring 27 professional titles, two FedEx Cups and three Race to Dubais.

He seeks to complete the career grand slam at The Masters, having won the US Open, the Open and two PGA Championships.

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV