After winning the career grand slam in 2025 was a defining moment for Rory McIlroy. However, reaching that stage also brought a different challenge: maintaining the same level of motivation after achieving a long-pursued goal. And that's where tennis legend Roger Federer came in.

Rory McIlroy shared on Friday at Fried Egg Golf about a recent conversation with Roger Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam champion

McIlroy recalled asking Federer how he stayed driven after achieving nearly everything in his career.

“When he got to 15, which was past Pete’s 14, he said, ‘Well, 20 didn’t seem that far away,’” McIlroy said.

To put that into perspective, when Federer reached 14 slams, it was the world record at the time. It was Federer's biggest achievement at the time. And for Rory McIlroy, that moment came at the Masters.

While he had multiple majors in the 2010s, the final step toward the career grand slam took time. After his 2014 PGA Championship win, McIlroy went nearly 11 years without another major title. And with his 2025 Masters win, McIlroy became the first player from Europe to complete the career Grand Slam. He joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods in that group.

“It’s the same thing for me,” the 2025 The Players Championship winner said. “I’ve got the five majors. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that I could win every major twice, which would be a really cool thing, to win the Grand Slam twice.”

At the moment, McIlroy is tied for the 15th spot of most majors won by a player. If he manages to fulfil his ambition of winning each major at least one more time, we could see him jump up to sixth on the list! That puts him close to the likes of Gary Player and Tom Watson!

However, He Won't Be Gunning For a Specific Number.

He also explained that he prefers not to publicly state a specific target for major titles.

"I think I've always been very hesitant to put a number on it because if you don't get to that number, does that mean you're a failure? Does that mean you haven't done what you set out to achieve?"

Instead, McIlroy emphasized that his focus remains on progressing further in his career and building a lasting legacy in the game.

As of March 2026, Rory McIlroy has won five major championships, most recently capturing the The Masters Tournament to complete the career Grand Slam. He can try to win it once again once we return to the Augusta National Golf Club in a month.

Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar