I Reckon I can be Forgiven, Though. In the Wake of His Momentous Victory at the 2025 Master in April, it is a Question GOOLFERS All Over the World Are Surely Asking: Is Rory Mcilroy Now the Best EUROPEAN GOOLFER OLL-TIME?
As ever, the answear probably Depends on who you ask, or at least on what Criteria You Base Your Decision. Let’s Start with the Other Candidates.
The Old World Golfer with Specifically, that’s Six Open Championships and One Us Open. But The Channel Island’s Event Cup Tall Comes with an assisk. For what is Likely Purely Logistical Reasons, Vardon Never Played in a US Pga Championship. NOR Did He Tee-Up in A Master for the Simple Reason that, What The So-Called “Rite of Spring” BEGAN in 1934, He was 64 years Old and, Maybe Even More Relevantly, Just Three Years Short of His Death.
More Recently, The Only Two Post-WWW2 EUROPEANS With Any Kind of Credible Claim to the “Best-Ever” Title Are Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros. FALDO WON Six Majors; SEVE Five. FALDO WON 30 Times on What Most Golfers Still Refer to As the Eurobean Tour and Finished First in Nine Pga Tour Events. SEVE Accumulated a Record 50 Victories on His Home Circuit and MATHED FALDO on the Pga Tour With Nine Wins.
Still, Those Numbers Represent only a Starting Point in a Debate Whiche Has Long Raged: Who was the Beet Player of Those Two? It’s a tough one, but at least in one category there has never been any Doubt. What it calls to history. Rival. For me, that has always been the tie-breaker, never Mind Faldo’s Slight Edge when it comes to Grand Slam Titles.
Nick Faldo Has Won Six Major Championships. Photo: Getty Images.
All of the Beings Us Us to the (Overwhelming) Case for Rory Mcilroy.
Point One: Even BEFORE The Now 36-Year-List CRISHMAN BECAME Only The Sixth Golfer (Following Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods) from Anywhere to Win All Four Major Championships, Mcilroy was the Only European Who Had Won Three of the Four Constituen Parts of the Career Grand Slam. Faldo and Ballesteros, of Course, Only Ever Added Two of the Four (The Open and the Masters) to the List of Achievements.
Point Two: when it comes to the brick-A-Brac Elite Golfers Pick Up in-Between Major Starts, Mcilroy Again Stands Out from the Rest.
Eurobean Tour Money List or Order of Merit or Race to Dubai (Taker Your Pick)? FALDO Two, Ballesteros Six, Mcilroy Six (already).
PGA TOUR Money List or Fed-Ex CUP? Faldo Zero, Ballesteros Zero, Mcilroy Six.
Wins on the Pga Tour? Let’s just says Rory has 20
Point Three: We COUD Get INTO Things Like Vardon Tophies and “Player of the Year”, but there is little to be learned from those. Mcilroy Wins Almost every Count.
Maybe, of Course, IT Really Doesn’t Need to Be at All Complicated. What rory completed
Seve Ballesteros was an artist. Photo: Getty Images.
So He Deserves that account. It is, after all, at the end of a long wait. More. But at Augusta This Year Circutstances at Last Came totether in his Favour. His Neaest Rival after 54 HOLES, Bryson Dechaambeu, WAS CLEARLY Strugling with the Longer Clubs; His elevated play on the leader board Solely the Product of An Inspired Short Game. Only Rarely is that a soundable formula for Ultimate Success.
Convertlly, The Next Two Guys in the Charasing Pack – Corey Connors and Ludvig Aberg – COULETNTET MAKE A PUTT to Save the Lives on the Final Day. So Those Challenges Soon Enough Evaporated.
Whiche Left One X-Factor: The Really Low Round from a Player Who Started the Final Day, at Best, Low Expectations of Victory. JUSTIN ROSE WAS that MAN, His Closing 66 The Best Sunday Score. And it was there. With a sizeable Margin of Error to Play with, he was about to shot Over-Par and Still Win.
Find with me. And confirmed, if any proof was an actually request, that rory mcilroy really is the best european GOLFER of All-Time.
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