Northern Irishman bristles at suggestions he has peaked as he returns to Augusta with the same intensity as always
It was an opening which depicted more than a decade of toil. “I’d like to start this press conference with a question,” said Rory McIlroy. “What are we all going to talk about next year?”
The wait was over. McIlroy had not only won the Masters, not only ended an 11-year wait for a fifth major, and not only become the sixth man in history to complete a grand slam. The ticking of all three boxes at once and in extraordinary circumstances was why the scenes at Augusta National in 2025 are unlikely to be matched as the 90th Masters staging approaches.
So what do we all talk about this year? The coming days will naturally bring further reflection on McIlroy’s achievement. The man himself bristles at the notion he could struggle for motivation on golf’s biggest stages now Everest has been climbed. “Not at all,” he says. “I still want to achieve things, I still want to win things. This isn’t the end.
“I feel like with the way I am playing and feeling … physically I feel better at 36 than I did at 25. I still have a lot left. If I can produce the golf shots that I needed to produce down the last few holes at Augusta, feeling the way I was feeling then, I am pretty capable of doing anything in this game.”
