It’s weeks ago now that Rory McIlroy at last won the Masters but the media stories keep on rolling out. His triumph meant he had completed the career Grand Slam, putting himself in truly exalted company alongside (in order of completion) Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Plus, to be historically accurate, Bobby Jones. More on that in a moment.
The victory took McIlroy’s tally of major championships to five. That’s one fewer than Nick Faldo but the latter paid him an effusive tribute in the Sunday Times. “He’s done way more than me,” he said. “He’s won 29 times [on the PGA Tour]. Of the all-time greats, I’d put him fifth. Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack and Tiger – Rory is right there. No discredit to Gene Sarazen, but that was a completely different era.”
It was indeed. Sarazen completed the professional Grand Slam in 1935 by winning the Masters. Mind you, he wouldn’t have known it at the time. The Masters was then known as the ‘Augusta National Invitation Tournament’, founded by Jones who in 1930 had completed the original Grand Slam by winning the Open and Amateur Championships of Great Britain and the United States. At that time he did it, Sarazen had won a tournament, not a major championship, the sensational aspect of it being that he made an albatross two on the 15th hole in the final round that got him into a playoff which he won.
There is inevitably an element of comparing apples and pears when it comes to considering respective achievements in golfing history. For example, when Nicklaus won the USPGA Championship in 1973, he was widely credited with 14 majors – his 12 as a pro plus his two US Amateurs, a holdover from the Jones era. (Jones won 13 majors as an amateur.) These days Nicklaus is invariably considered to have won 18 majors, not 20. Back in 1973, he said: “You can’t say I’m better than Jones because I’ve won more major championships. Jones got his wins in a shorter period of time. We played in different championships against different competition.” Very true. There is also this. Walter Hagen won 11 major championships but he only had three to go for – he was well past his prime by the time the Masters was inaugurated under its then less illustrious name.
So basically all such comparisons are fundamentally flawed? Probably so, but there is one that makes for historically interesting reading. The only constants between the amateur age of Jones and the professional generations of Nicklaus and Woods are the two Open Championships: the one held in Great Britain and the one held in the United States. Three men have won a combined total of seven of those Open Championships: Harry Vardon, Jones and Nicklaus. Behind them on six are Hagen, Tom Watson and Woods. On five, rounding out the top-10, we find James Braid, J.H. Taylor, Hogan and Peter Thomson.
Rory needs three more of those two to get into that bracket.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com
