Rory McIlory, freed of Grand Slam burden, a scary PGA Championship competitor

CHARLOTTE, N.C.— Rory McIlroy has always been at his best when he freewheels it and simply lets his talent go on the golf course — circumstances be damned. And now, here he is this week, about to play the PGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Quail Hollow, without stress or questions that need to be answered about his career or his game. McIlroy’s historic victory at the Masters last month — a win that ended an 11-year winless drought in majors, earned him a first green jacket for his closet and completed the coveted career Grand Slam — may turn out to be the most liberating win a player has had in the history of the sport. “I have achieved everything that I’ve wanted,’’ McIlroy said Wednesday.

“I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do in the game.I dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors.

I’ve done that.Everything beyond this, for however long I decide to play the game competitively, is a bonus.’’ Xander Schauffele, the defending PGA champion and, along with Scottie Scheffler, one of McIlroy’s playing partners for the first two rounds this week, said McIlroy’s breakthrough could be “scary for guys like us.’’ “If that was something that was holding him back and now he feels free, that could be a pretty scary thing,” Schauffele said. It’s very possible that McIlroy now goes on a Tiger Woods-like tear. If he wins this week, it would be his sixth career major championship and third PGA, and it would begin talk of a calendar Grand Slam, putting McIlroy halfway there with the big ballpark of Oakmont for the U.S.

Open and the British Open at Royal Portrush on his home turf of Northern Ireland ahead. Many wonder what McIlroy might do now that he’s reached this pinnacle, and whether his hunger will remain the same. “I feel like I sort of burdened myself with the career Grand Slam stuff, and I want to enjoy this,’’ he said.“I’m still going to set myself go...