Graeme McDowell believes Rory McIlroy can win as many major titles as he wants, as long as he remains healthy and motivated.
With three tournament wins in a row and back-to-back majors taking him to four already, all the talk is of McIlroy replicating the previous dominance of Tiger Woods. McDowell agrees.
“It’s beginning to look a little Tiger-esque I suppose,” he said of McIlroy’s winning streak.
“I said at the Open I didn’t think we were going to see someone creating their own kind of Tiger-esque era just yet. I’m not eating my words but guess you could say I’m certainly starting to chew on them right now.
"When the kid is playing well, he’s pretty tough to live with. It’s pretty special stuff.”
McIlroy admits that his split from fiancée Caroline Wozniacki has proven to be good for his golf, winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth just days after calling off their wedding and reaping the rewards of making golf his number one priority.
“He says that he’s sort of tied up a lot of his loose ends off the golf course,” McDowell added of his former stablemate. “Loose ends is not a very nice term to put your personal life and I don’t mean it like that, but he seems to be in a very good place.
“He’s an incredible player and when he’s in this type of mood, he’s pretty tough to beat.”
Asked if McIlroy could match Woods’ total of 14 majors or the 18 of Jack Nicklaus, former US Open champion McDowell added:
“Not many people are born with the type of focus Tiger Woods had, growing up with pictures of Jack Nicklaus on his wall and wanting to beat Jack’s record.
"Knowing Rory as I have the last few years, it didn’t seem to me like he was trying to beat Jack’s record.
“So it’s a case of how the guy continues to motivate himself. You don’t know what the number is. It’s however many he wants. He’ll win as many majors as he wants, within reason.
“Rory has obviously got himself in amazing shape physically now as well and it’s just a case of how fit and healthy he can stay. To me, it’s 10 per cent staying healthy and 90 per cent how many he wants to win.”
