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Image caption: Rory McIlroy aims to become the first player since Jack Nicklaus in 1975 to win both the Masters and the US PGA in the same year.
Rory McIlroy cut short a practice round after just three holes, abruptly halting his preparations for the US PGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia.
The Masters champion, seeking back-to-back major victories, experienced discomfort in his right foot just hours after revealing he had removed the nail from his little toe earlier this week.
“Softened it up in the shower and just ripped it off,” McIlroy joked before removing his sock to show reporters the result of his DIY surgery shortly after his pre-tournament news conference.
The 37-year-old had planned to play nine practice holes Tuesday afternoon, having already scouted the Donald Ross-designed course in Pennsylvania earlier. He admitted he would need to go up half a size in his golf shoes for his assault on the second men’s major of the season. According to Golf Digest, McIlroy was seen limping on the third hole and at one point removed his shoe. He stopped practice on the fourth tee and left the course in a golf cart, reportedly in good spirits.
This setback comes at a critical moment for McIlroy, who appeared relaxed and ready for his first major since successfully defending his Masters title last month. Earlier Tuesday, he seemed a different person compared to the irritable figure who avoided the media during much of last year’s PGA, still feeling the hangover from his career Grand Slam victory at Augusta National.
At that time, he was uncertain about what came next after his dramatic playoff win over Justin Rose at the 2025 Masters. Having become only the fourth player to retain the Green Jacket last month, McIlroy made time to celebrate before focusing on this week’s championship.
“Major championship wins don’t come along that often,” he told reporters. “A little more often for me in the past couple years than the previous decade, so yeah, I wanted to enjoy it. The further I get on in my career, the more I start to realize how special these moments are. It was really nice to spend time at home with Erica, Poppy, and my parents.”
The celebration included attending the state banquet for King Charles’ recent visit to Washington, D.C., which prompted McIlroy to skip the PGA Tour’s signature event at Doral in Miami earlier this month. He then flew lifelong coach Michael Bannon to his Florida base to prepare for the remaining three majors: this week’s PGA, the US Open next month, and The Open at Royal Birkdale in July.
“It’s been a really good two and a half weeks of practice and getting back into playing competitively,” he said.
McIlroy finished joint 19th last week in Charlotte in his only tournament since his Masters win. “Quail Hollow wasn’t the week that I wanted, but it was still useful,” he noted. “There’s still a lot that I learned about my game, and that’s what I needed to do coming into this week. I didn’t give myself a chance to win, unfortunately, but I still feel like it was a good week to see where my game was at and what I need to do to get into contention this week.”
McIlroy faded in the third round at Quail Hollow, where he has won four times, but, just as he did at Augusta, he worked out issues on the range Saturday evening before firing an impressive 67 in the final round. “It was a nice way to finish the week,” he said. “I went away from Quail Hollow with quite a few positives. I did some practice at home Monday and feel good about where my game is heading into this week.”
As the Masters winner, McIlroy is the only player who can complete an unprecedented calendar-year Grand Slam. Tiger Woods is the only one to hold all four modern majors simultaneously, but his run began with the 2000 US Open and ended at the following year’s Masters. Is winning all four in one year achievable? “I think it’s possible,” McIlroy said. “But it’s incredibly difficult. There’s a reason no one’s been able to do it before. The best thing is to give yourself a chance in each one and see where the chips fall on Sunday. There’s a lot of randomness in winning golf tournaments. You need many things to go your way along with playing well. So in 100 years, if one person has done it, I’d say yeah, I could see that happening, but it’s so difficult.”
The world number two has overcome demons that led to an 11-year wait for his fifth major title at last year’s Masters. “If you look at my game and my results and my consistency from 2022 through to now, I’ve been on a nice run,” he said. “And that run has culminated with the last couple of Masters, which has been really nice. Major championships aren’t won with statistics or previous results. They are won with grit and determination and hitting shots under pressure when you need to. There are no real statistics to show how good you are at that. That’s just something you have to learn and be.”
McIlroy endured a string of near misses before claiming last year’s Masters. “Once you start to get over that hump and you get a win, you get another win, it breeds confidence from there,” he said. “Form gives you confidence leading into events, but the way I won at Augusta a few weeks ago gives me more confidence about where I’m at and what I can do in these big weeks than winning two or three events leading up to a major.”
McIlroy’s biggest challenge this week will come from world number one and defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who skipped Quail Hollow to prepare for Aronimink. Players champion Cameron Young and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick are also in form, while McIlroy’s Ryder Cup partner Tommy Fleetwood showed promise with a fifth-place finish in Charlotte last week.