article_snippet.sent: A performance as breathtaking as Tiger Woods’s arrival in 1997.
article_snippet.sent: Still, it’s pretty cool any time you can lead the Masters and to set a record is awesome.
article_snippet.sent: Many had Augusta pegged as the venue where Rory McIlroy would complete Rory McIlroy personal grand slam in 2015; instead, the Masters may go down as the moment where Rory McIlroy was placed in the threatening shadow of a young Texan gunslinger, now in the vanguard of an American revival.
article_snippet.sent: Up ahead of Spieth, Ernie Els laboured valiantly to stay in touch.
article_snippet.sent: At the age of 25, as Rory McIlroy is now, Ernie Els won his first major, the 1994 US Open.
article_snippet.sent: his was considered capable of dominating the sport for the next decade, and his won the sport again in 1997.
article_snippet.sent: By that time, however, a 21-year-old called Tiger Woods had announced his arrival at the Masters.
article_snippet.sent: The era of Ernie Els never materialised.
article_snippet.sent: Rory McIlroy may have achieved more and younger than Ernie Els, and Spieth may not be the ice-cold winning machine a 21-year-old called Tiger Woods was at Rory McIlroy age — but
article_snippet.sent: Instead Rory McIlroy is fast approaching £10m in career earnings and on the brink of a first major.
article_snippet.sent: Like McIlroy US Open victory at Congressional in 2011 this could see a grand rewriting of the record books.