How Many Majors Will McIlroy Win Throughout His Career??

kiers47 wrote: »

My guess is 7(but its nothing more than a guess). I cant really see him winning an open not at the moment anyway. Although his performance this week has been unreal, lets not get carried away he has also had a lot of weekends off this year. Tiger was never missing cuts in his heyday.

Another year will tell a lot.

Seve was younger than Rory when he won his second and he finished with five. You never can tell.

I'm gonna guess 12. He's only 23 so I can see him getting better and better. It's just a matter of staying healthy and being able to win when being closely challenged in the final few holes.

I voted 7-10 but he could exceed that, from what we've seen so far, he has all the tools and seems like a well-adjusted person. Imagine how many majors John Daly might have won with a personality equal to his talent. (I know, 3).

Also I think he is quite likely to win all four eventually. Not many have done that.

This is the golden age of Irish golf, that's for certain.

The main issue for Rory is how many does he want to win.
He wanted the first because it was his first, he wanted this one to prove his critics wrong.
With his talent and leaving the uncontrollable issue of injury aside, it is his attitude to the game over the next 15 years that will decide the answer to this question.

Threads like this are boring cos where is the fun in guessing numbers?

Let's put it this way, if anyone could be a major (and big tournament) winning machine out there right now, it would be Rory more than any other player I can see. He's got all the tools, and course management. The fans over here like him (that's not always the case with European stars, remember the troubles Monty had). Since 3/4 of the majors are played over here, that is a key. Monty would have won 4-5 majors if they were all played in Europe.

As for him being "cocky" well, would we not all be cocky if we could win a major by 6-7 strokes? If I won any PGA tournament I would be damned hard to live with for about five years, even if it were the Mud Creek Open.

Anyway, as to Rory being the right sort of player, what would you fix? Get back to me. I would fix the times he doesn't play like he played on Sunday.

Who wouldn't have a few bad outings? Tiger in his absolute prime had that aura of invincibility that we may never see again. Rory won't have that, he is not quite that separated from the pack. Or maybe he is, sinking every putt in a final round of a major? Retief Goosen did that at the U.S. Open a few years back, more or less. Mike Weir did it at the 2003 Masters. Very rare feat, especially at 22 years of age. But there is the luck factor too. Tiger won majors from Bob May and Rocco Mediate without those B-pack players making a bad shot. They held it together against all the odds, played flawless final rounds, and he still beat them. So that was two freebies in my mind. Hogan lost to Jack Fleck, look it up. Same dynamics, different luck.

As to other phenoms who might win a few, Bubba Watson might win 3-5, he will go through many ups and downs but he's a gamer. He is never totally off the course as we found out. Adam Scott can't be this unlucky forever. Ricky Fowler has a few in him. Luke Donald seems to have the perfect game for majors yet he always seems to win everything but majors. But so many majors fall into the hands of one-timers who then basically go to sleep, probably having achieved their one big goal in their golfing dreams. Anyone seen Rich Beem lately?

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

I'm not going bumping this every time he wins a major, but I'm curious if anyone will change their opinion now his major total is beginning to accumulate now.

What I do find strange, as I've said in the open thread, is despite his ridiculous talents, he's only winning 1 or 2 tournaments a year on average. Tiger was winning around 6-8 in his peak.

There's increasingly belief now from many he will overtake Nicklaus and Woods. He did say recently "there's more to life than winning majors" in response to Nick Faldo saying he doesn't train hard enough. Wonder if he still has that attitude and if it does will that hamper him. It feels like he could win a lot more, but only when he's in the mood and motivated.

He's right though. There is more to life than major records. I'm sure he doesn't want it to become an obsession at this early stage.

I think it depends on how well he keeps his head in the right place. He undoubtedly has the game to win 15 majors but it depends on his head. Nick Faldo seems a bit jealous of him I think. Probably because he knows mcilroy is way more talented than he ever was. He doesn't seem to be as prolific a winner as tiger was when he was at the peak of his powers. I wonder how long into his career can he bend and contort his body the way he does. Wait till he is around the 40 mark and doesn't need to tighten his belt buckle as much any more will he still swing the club as well. I'm going to say he will win 10 majors.

As the Tigmeister said about Rory:

"When he gets it going, he gets it going. When it gets going bad, it gets going real bad. It's one or the other."

True enough. I can't personally see him catching Tiger. I'd question if he would be as prolific. When he wins em he'll win em well. To use a football analogy, a Giles-ism, he's not a great goal scorer, but he's a scorer of great goals.