“From now on, everything is gravy” - McIlroy targeting more Major glory after latest Augusta triumph

Rory McIlroy. Picture; Augusta National

Rory McIlroy made all his boyhood dreams come true by winning the Masters last year but he was determined to win it again to prove to himself that his 2025 success wasn’t “a fluke”.

The Holywood idol surprised everyone with that admission during his green jacket acceptance speech on the putting green on Sunday night.

Like Padraig Harrington, who won The Open in a dogfight with Sergio Garcia at Carnoustie after messing up the 72nd hole and went on to retain the title with a Rolls-Royce performance at Royal Birkdale, McIlroy wanted to prove to himself that adding more Majors to his resumé is no pipe dream.

“I don't know if it was a driving force, but I just think that the way that I won last year, I feel like I played better at last year's Masters than I did at this year's Masters, especially for the entire tournament, for the four days,” McIlroy told RTÉ’s Greg Allen late on Sunday night when Augusta National was enveloped in darkness.

“But again, I stumbled over the line. I think it's just hard to win golf tournaments; it's hard to win Majors. That's why not many people do it. I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I can do it again.”

Having blown a four-shot lead on the back nine last year before winning in a play-off, he wanted a statement win.

“I said afterwards, I'd love to get another opportunity where I'm in the lead, standing on the 13th tee, and see if I would handle it differently,” he said. “And I had that opportunity this year, and I did handle it differently, which was great.”

Still, there was drama again at the 72nd hole, where a wild drive into the trees left him stressing about whether or not he’d have a shot at making the bogey he needed to win by one.

That’s all history now, and while he went into a lull after last year’s win and struggled to reset his goals after scaling Everest by completing the Grand Slam and ending a decade-long Major drought, he feels differently now.

He knows there will be no post-Masters doubts this year as he looks to take his Major haul to seven at next month’s PGA Championship, having said at the start of the week that he was excited for the Masters and the first of 16 Major championship rounds.

Even after losing a record six-shot lead with a 73 on Saturday and briefly falling three shots behind on Sunday on the front nine, he showed his resilience and relied on his experience to edge back into the lead heading to Amen Corner.  

“I certainly didn't play the way I wanted to on Saturday, but I held it together,” he said. “I shot 73, but Cam (Young) shot 65, Scottie (Scheffler) shot 65, so I had a few guys come from the pack and really shoot good scores.

“But I hung in there, and I at least gave myself a chance. And I think the reset on Saturday night was, look, when I got here to Augusta on Saturday of last week, if someone had told me that I would be tied for the lead going into the final round and I'm in the final group, I would have taken it. So I think just reframing where I find myself was, was important.”

That win in 2025 eased some of the pressure, but it still took him months to reframe his goals.

Now that he’s realised that his mission is simply to keep going, he’s a dangerous animal.

“I think last year was the culmination of trying to win the Grand Slam and win the Masters for the first time, win my first major in 10 years, it was all of it together,” he said.  

“This is obviously amazing. It's my second green jacket. It’s very cool, but it's not, I really don't think I'm going to have the like, lull, or whatever it was I had last year of trying to figure out, okay, what's next?  

“Because I've gone through that and I realised, well, what's next is you just keep going, and you just keep trying to have more success and keep winning the biggest tournaments that there are to win in the world.

“I was glad last year that the whole Grand Slam thing was done, because that really was what I was chasing. And now going forward, everything is the icing on the cake, or a cherry on top, or all gravy, whatever you want to call it.

“I feel like I can just go and play my game and have a chance to win a lot more majors.”