Defending Masters champion Rory McIlroy does not want his year wearing the green jacket to end, but it has made him realise completing the career grand slam at Augusta 12 months ago did not fulfil his ambitions.
The Northern Irishman ended an 11-year wait to become only the sixth player in history after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods to have all four majors on his record.
McIlroy’s outpouring of emotion on holing the winning putt in a play-off against Ryder Cup team-mate Justin Rose told its own story, but the 36-year-old believes there are plenty of chapters still to be written.
First on the to-do list is becoming only the fourth man – and first in 24 years – after Nicklaus, Woods and Sir Nick Faldo to win back-to-back Masters titles.
“For the past 17 years I just could not wait for the tournament to start and this year I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started. That’s sort of the difference,” McIlroy said of his status as returning champion.
“I feel so much more relaxed. I know that I’m going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks champions get here.
“It doesn’t make me any less motivated to play well and try to win the tournament.
“The story as it relates to me is, what do I do from now onwards? What motivates me? What gets me going? What do I still want to achieve in the game? And there’s still a lot that I want to do.
“You think every time you achieve something or have success that you’ll be happy, but then the goalposts move and they just keep nudging a little bit further and further out of reach.
“What I’ve realised is, if you can just really find enjoyment in the journey, that’s the big thing because, honestly, I felt like the career grand slam was my destination and I got there and then I realised it wasn’t the destination.”
Preparation has been sketchy as, having withdrawn from the Arnold Palmer Invitational with back spasms, he returned to defend his Players Championship title, failed to break 71 in four rounds and finished joint 46th.
But the mood at Augusta is different to previous years for McIlroy, who added: “Instead of it being, ‘Come on, Rory, you know you can do this’, it’s, ‘Back to back?’. There’s a real positive connotation to it instead of, ‘Jeez Rory, we’ve been waiting a while. When are you going to get this done?’.
“Maybe that’s just my perception of it, but it is so nice to just not have that hanging over me. It feels that it’s a big weight off my shoulders.
“I feel I’ve got another hopefully 10 good shots at this – not that I don’t at the other majors, but I just think everything here is a little more predictable. The more experience you have around this golf course, the better it is.”
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A reflective McIlroy also paid tribute to the influence parents Rosie and Gerry, with whom he played a round at Augusta on Sunday, have had on his career.
“I think in terms of what they instilled in me, work ethic is something. My mum worked night shifts, my dad worked multiple jobs. That was normal for me,” he added.
“I never spent a lot of time with my parents together because always the other one was working because they knew their son had a dream to play golf. They sacrificed a lot.”
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