Rory McIlroy, who just won the Masters tournament for the second year in a row, said he was treating the career milestone differently this time.
In response to a reporter asking whether he would take time off to soak in the win like he did last year, the Northern Irish golfer said he considered this win “just a part of the journey,” and there are still many things he wants to achieve.
“I felt like the Grand Slam was the destination, and I realized it wasn’t,” he said on Sunday. “I’m on this journey. I’ve just won my sixth major, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot with my game and my body.”
McIlroy, 36, won the 2026 Masters tournament held in Augusta, Georgia. He said in the press conference that he had waited so long to win the Masters, only to find himself winning two in a row.
“But I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post-winning this tournament,” McIlroy added.
Read our coverage of the Masters
Last June, after a weak showing at the RBC Canadian Open, he spoke about hitting a slump in the months after his first Masters win.
He said he wasn’t chasing any goals, and after a couple of weeks off from the sport, said that “grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be.”
“You have this event in your life that you’ve worked toward, and it happens,” McIlroy said. “Sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.”
President Donald Trump congratulated McIlroy on his win in a Sunday post on Truth Social.
Trump, an avid golfer himself, wrote: “He performed tremendously under intense pressure, something which few people would be able to even think about doing.”
“With each year, Rory is becoming more and more a LEGEND!” he added.
