Pressure Is on Rory McIlroy to Ignite Jordan Spieth Rivalry at PGA Championship

OK, Rory McIlroy, it's officially on you.

While the Northern Irishman already has four major trophies on his mantel—including two of the last three PGA Championship trinkets—at the age of 26, the responsibility for kick-starting golf’s latest super rivalry has nevertheless become his.

Or, at least until further notice.

Such is life in a world suddenly owned by Jordan Spieth. The now-22-year-old Texan, on the strength of wins at the Masters and U.S. Open and a near-miss at the British Open at age 21, has relegated McIlroy and all others to at least temporary squirrel status.

And while nothing in golf is ever for sure—see: Woods, Tiger; 18 majors—it seems like a safe bet Spieth is at least going to contend at Whistling Straits, given what he's done at the last three majors and despite the fact the PGA has never been his wheelhouse. (He missed the cut in the 2013 and 2014 editions.)

The same could have been said prior to this year about both the U.S. and British, where he'd not previously been a contending factor either. In fact, prior to watching Dustin Johnson vanquish himself on the 72nd green at Chambers Bay, Spieth had never been closer than 17th at the U.S. And before falling a shot short of a playoff at St. Andrews, he’d done no better than ties for 44th and 36th at the British.

Clearly, the kid is now a man. And he'll be an odds-on favorite in any tournament he enters regardless of past results, either until he retires or until someone else establishes himself as the man to beat.

John Locher/Associated Press

Toward that end this week, there are far more questions surrounding McIlroy.

Where just a few months ago he was framing himself as the links version of LeBron James, these days McIlroy—thanks to an ankle injury that kept him from playing at St. Andrews and kept a rivalry-starved populace clamoring for a generational golf duel—has a heap of pressure on him in some difficult circumstances.

Oh, and by the way, guess who he’ll be playing with Thursday and Friday?

Someone who’s both red-hot and not shy about gunning for the world’s top player.

"Rory has four majors and dozens of wins, and I’m just starting out," Spieth told the Guardian in June. "I’m certainly quite a bit younger than he is. I’m just happy to have [the Masters and U.S. Open], and to be chasing that No. 1 spot which he holds. So I’m certainly focused on that."

Should McIlroy and Spieth indeed get to the weekend in the mix, it’ll set up the sort of competition that has long been the property of other sports but rarely panned out alongside the clubhouse. While basketball had its Magic and Bird, boxing had its Ali and Frazier and tennis had its McEnroe and Borg, the presence of two otherworldly golf talents in their primes simultaneously hasn’t been nearly as routine.

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Lest we forget, Arnold Palmer was 10 years older than Jack Nicklaus, and the two rarely went to the final-round wire together in the 1960s. Nicklaus and Tom Watson—though perceived as frequent rivals in the 1970s and '80s—were nine years apart and just as infrequently in the same Sunday major chase.

And though Woods’ current seven-year ache for a major has reshaped the way some remember his heyday, only one final major pairing involving him and Phil Mickelson ended with either one of them bringing home a championship—the 2001 Masters, in which Woods ultimately finished two shots better than David Duval and three ahead of Lefty.

Still, you can’t blame a fan contingent for hoping.

After all, not only do McIlroy and Spieth pitch for rival apparel companies—Nike and Under Armour, respectively—off the course, but they also have enough differences in their games on the course to prompt Team Edward vs. Team Jacob-level zeal from supporters. Off the tee, McIlroy’s drives are powerfully majestic, whereas Spieth’s lean toward precisely consistent. In the short game, the European is streaky, while the American is solid.

And on the leaderboard, while the older man can seize a tournament by the throat, the younger man more often collects trophies by waiting for others to falter. Toward that very end, a third major for Spieth would elevate him to No. 1 in the world and void the claim McIlroy’s had on that position since this time last summer, when he won the British Open, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA within four remarkable weeks.

Back then, precisely no one would have forecast a successor so soon.

Come Thursday, it’ll be up to McIlroy to prove the king has a little fight left.