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Hoylake, England • Rory McIlroy clutched the treasured piece of silverware, his reward for winning golf's oldest major championship.
Now he's got his eyes on a new jacket. Something in green, preferably.
With a grind-it-out performance on the final day of the British Open, McIlroy checked off another requirement for joining perhaps the most exclusive club in the game.
U.S. Open? He's won that. PGA Championship? Yep, got one of those too.
British Open? Took care of that on Sunday.
"I'm immensely proud of myself," McIlroy said, clutching the claret jug after a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler. "To sit here at 25 years of age and win my third major championship and be three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam, I never dreamed of being at this point in my career so quickly."
All that's left is the Masters.
Get ready, Augusta National. This guy isn't very patient.
With his victory at Royal Liverpool, McIlroy became the third-youngest player — behind Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — to win three of the four majors. Nicklaus, Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen are the only players to capture all four, a feat that eluded such greats as Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead.