Rory McIlroy has revealed a private remark from caddie Harry Diamond that continues to inspire him as he prepares to defend his Irish Open title this week. Speaking on Off the Ball's Golf Weekly podcast, McIlroy recalled Diamond's admission shortly after his first Masters victory.
"Harry said to me, pretty soon after I won Augusta, he said, 'It's great you've won the Grand Slam but I haven't yet,'" McIlroy said. "So that's cool."
Career Grand Slam completed in 2025
McIlroy completed a Career Grand Slam in 2025, but Diamond has only been on his bag for two of his major wins. For his 2011 US Open, 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship and 2014 Open victories, JP Fitzgerald was McIlroy's caddie.
Therefore, winning every major with Diamond is on McIlroy's to-do list and evidently motivates him. "It would be cool to be able to do that with Harry," he continued.
Memories of Holywood Golf Club
McIlroy, now 37, reflected on the significance of sharing his Masters triumph with Diamond. "One of my favourite things about winning the Masters was being able to do it with Harry. We met on the putting green at Holywood Golf Club when I was seven years old and we're striding up the last hole with the chance to win a green jacket," he said.
"That's as good as it gets for me. So if he's on the journey for the rest of my career and we can pick off a few more, that would be amazing."
Recalibrating goals for the future
On his future ambitions, McIlroy admitted: "For the last decade, my chase was to try to get that elusive Masters and win the Grand Slam. Now that I've done that, I think it's just taken me a little bit of time to recalibrate and think about, 'Ok, what are my goals for the rest of my career?'"
"I'm still only 36. I feel like I've got another eight to 10 years at the very top level of the game left. So, I think at this point, it's just about resetting those goals and sort of giving myself more objectives to try to aim for."
McIlroy's immediate goal is to defend the crown he won last year at the Irish Open from the likes of Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry. The winner of this year's renewal will pocket roughly £775,000 of the £4.56million purse.
