Rory McIlroy Has No Designs On Jack Nicklaus' Major Championship Record

NORTON, Mass. -- Prognosticators in the golf world may wish to predict that Rory McIlroy will break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 career major championship victories, but the 23-year-old, two-time major winner has shorter-term goals in mind.

"No, not at all," McIlroy said Thursday about whether he set out as a young golfer to overtake either Nicklaus’ mark or that of Tiger Woods, who has captured 14 majors. "I never grew up chasing records or trying to put a certain number on it."

McIlroy -- who met the press ahead of this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, the second of four events in the PGA Tour’s season-ending FedEx Cup series -- cruised to his second major championship with an eight-stroke win at the PGA Championship earlier this month. For the time being, the young man from Northern Ireland said, he is satisfied with his accomplishments.

“I've got my second major, and there's going to be a lot of people getting sick of this phrase, but I got my second, and I'm looking for my third," said McIlroy, the oddsmakers' co-favorite (along with Woods) to win this week. "Hopefully it's not too long before I get my third, and then when I get my third, I want to get my fourth. That's the way I'm approaching it.

“I don't want to put any number on it because if I just throw a random number out there and I don't get to it, I don't want me to be disappointed with a career that's actually very good or everyone else to feel like I haven't lived up to expectations.

“I have no set number,” McIlroy added. “I'm very happy that I've won two majors, and I want to get that third one. But whenever it comes, it comes.”

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