Rory McIlroy: From career Grand Slam to a calendar slam - can he win all four majors in 2025?

Rory McIlroy suffered through 10 barren years at major tournaments before his stunning Masters triumph on Sunday clinched a career Grand Slam - and immediately raised the question of what will he achieve next?

Dame Laura Davies said in the immediate aftermath of McIlroy's Augusta National win: "He might win five or six more majors now as he will never feel pressure like that again, trying to get the Grand Slam."

McIlroy, himself, talked of the burden that he had felt during his major winless streak and relief appeared to one of the overriding emotions that came through in his celebrations on the 18th green after his play-off win over Justin Rose.

"The monkey is off his back," Sky Sports' Andrew Coltart said. "I think we're going to start to see the Rory McIlroy we always knew was in there but for the last 11 years has struggled to come out."

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So what could McIlroy go on to achieve? And is it a realistic prospect for him to follow up a career Grand Slam by winning a calendar year one in 2025?

Next month's PGA Championship is being held at Quail Hollow, a course he has won four times on previously, on the PGA Tour, while the 2025 Open Championship this summer returns to Royal Portrush and Northern Ireland - McIlroy will be hotly fancied to win both.

"You can't win all four majors in a year if you haven't won the first one," McIlroy told Sky Sports.

"The next major is at Quail Hollow, somewhere I have loved for the most part of my career, there's The Open at [Royal] Portrush, the Ryder Cup at Bethpage.

"There's a lot of golf left this year. I've gotten off to a great start, obviously, and I can't wait to keep it going."

Former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley is another to have lent his backing to the 35-year-old McIlroy, saying "I don't think he's done winning majors this year".

"I think it's a different Rory, an evolution of Rory," McGinley said on the Golf Channel.

"There is mental resilience there that might not have been there. He's got strategies, he digs deep, and he can win when he's not right on it. He's on a path to maybe win more.

"Now that he's climbed Everest, does he lose a little bit? When you reach something you've desired so much, you kind of soften, but I don't think so. I think he's going to keep going.

"I've said if he'll win one major, he'll win three or four. I don't think he's done winning majors this year. He's got some great chances to add to it."

Davies: 'No question' Rory will win PGA Championship

Upon ending his wait for a Green Jacket, McIlroy himself questioned what storyline would command the headlines during the build-up to next year's Masters, having been placed at the forefront of discussion for over a decade.

With the childhood dream finally ticked off, he has been backed to elevate his game to a new calibre of domination. For Dame Laura Davies, that begins at the PGA Championship.

"He will win. I absolutely have no question about it," said Davies on the Sky Sports Golf podcast. "He's going to be the most light-hearted. He's going to relish every press conference that he does.

"He loves the golf course. He has no fears now because he doesn't have to think about I'm never going to get the green jacket because he's got it. Everything else from this point onwards is easy.

"Trust me. It's just the way it's going to be. At the Open, necessarily, I don't know about that one. He had that horrible start around Royal Port Rush. So whether that's going to hamper him round there, I don't know."

Such has become of the expectations surrounding one of the modern golfing greats that an unthinkable same-season Grand Slam has been thrown into the thinking. Dare he dream of such a feat?

"I said he'll never play under that much pressure again that he did yesterday but if he actually did that (win the first three majors of the year), I don't know about whether he's going to have that chance, but then the pressure's back to the level it was this week," Davies continued.

"We're talking about a Grand Slam in a year and I don't think it's going to happen. The next one's definite. I'm not even going to argue about that but I just think if it did happen then the pressure is at that same level as we had yesterday."

Dougherty: Expectations are higher

McIlroy soared to PGA Championship victory back in both 2012 and 2014 among seven top 10 finishes around Quail Hollow. He returns armed with the momentum of success at The Players Championship and now Augusta.

"I've always had a huge amount of faith that he was going to get across the line here. I was getting a bit concerned," said Sky Sports Golf's Dougherty.

"Now he's broken through that barrier, I have a much, much higher expectation for what he will do in the majors because I thought it was just such a massive burden and that golf course, I mean, it couldn't come at a better time.

"Wind at his back, course he's had success at. PGA, there's a very good chance he snaps that one up."

Did the floodgates to an all-conquering McIlroy just open? The golfing world is about to find out.

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