New faces out to hunt down McIlroy at Masters

World number one aiming to win third straight major title next week.

PARIS: It seems like only yesterday that Rory McIlroy was the hunter. Next week when he tees off in what will be his seventh Masters he is quite clearly the hunted.

The 25-year-old world number one is aiming to win his third straight major title and in so doing become just the sixth player in history to complete a career Grand Slam of the sports’ four crown jewels.

To achieve that feat and enter the realms of golfing greatness the Northern Irishman will have to vanquish a rapidly-evolving cast of characters.

When he first teed off in earnest at Augusta National in 2009, Tiger Woods still reigned supreme, Phil Mickelson was in his prime and Ernie Els loomed large.

The youthful McIlroy had them all in his sights. Six years on, much has changed.

Woods may well be in terminal decline at 39, riddled by injuries and loss of form. He is ranked 104th in the world. Mickelson is also struggling, the 44-year-old missing cuts and slumping to 21st in the rankings. Els at 45 looks like a spent force and is down at 82nd place.

But, as ever, from out of the ashes a new generation of top players is emerging.

Leading the way are three Americans — all younger than McIlroy.

Jordan Spieth is only 21 but he has already won twice on the US PGA Tour, most recently at the Valspar Championship in February. Fellow Texan Patrick Reed at 24 has won four times, while Brooks Koepka from Florida grabbed his breakthrough win in February a month ahead of his 25th birthday.

What the trio have in common is they all possess loads of talent and the burning desire to match up to and eventually unseat McIlroy from the pinnacle of the game.

Spieth, who some believe is the finest young talent to emerge in the United States since Woods back in the late 1990s, is in no doubt over what he needs to do.

“Right now what I’m really focused on is McIlroy is number one in the world,” he said after winning the Valspar win. “That’s who everyone is trying to chase. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2015.

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