Gavin Cooney reports from Augusta National Golf Club

RORY MCILROY BEAMED that “good things come to those who wait” after becoming only the fourth main history to successfully defend the Masters. 

McIlroy began slowly, playing his first six holes in two over-par, slipping two shots off the lead. But he made birdies on holes seven and eight from which point he outlasted the field, birdieing holes 12 and 13 in the treacherous Amen Corner to give himself a two-shot lead going to the final hole. A closing bogey proved immaterial as McIlroy went back-to-back, finishing a shot clear of Scottie Scheffler. 

“Good things come to those who wait”, replied McIlroy when asked at his post-victory press conference what the tournament has taught him about life. Just keep going. I found myself in a very similar position today to where I was in the last round last year, two or three behind, but I played solid golf after that.

“I was four-under for an 11 hole stretch there, which is what I needed to do to give myself that cushion going up the last. I just tried really hard to focus on myself. I thought if I could get to 14-under, I thought that everyone else would struggle to get to that score. So that was the number I had in my head. I got to 13 on the last and had that two-shot cushion.

“I didn’t quite get there, but yeah, just keep going. Keep your head down and keep it going. If you put the hours in and work on the right things, eventually it will come good for you.

“You’re out there a long time. There’s a long time between shots. There’s a long time between rounds. Of all the big sports, I do think it is the most mental. It’s the most challenging mentally. I think it’s hard to stay in the same mental space for four days in a row. I was in a great mental space, like say on the 13th tee shot, for example. All of my practice rounds up here, the weeks leading into it, Monday, Tuesday, great. I hit two left on Wednesday off the tee. Then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I didn’t sniff hitting the fairway. So it’s just there’s little things that happen that just start to make you second guess things. It’s just very hard to stay, not in the right spot mentally, but the same spot mentally for a long period of time.” 

McIlroy’s parents were absent when he won last year, but both were present and greenside for this year’s victory. 

“I caught myself on the golf course a couple of times thinking about them, and I was like no, not yet, not yet”, he said. “They missed it last year, and the first thing I wanted to do was fly home to see them because I obviously wouldn’t be sitting up here if it wasn’t for them. I had to sort of convince them to come this year because they thought the reason I won last year was because they weren’t here.” 

McIlroy’s victory was altogether more fraught than forecast on Friday night, when he had a six-shot lead, the biggest halfway lead in tournament history. 

“I don’t make it easy”, he smiled. “I used to make it easy back in my early 20s when I was winning these things by eight shots. No, it’s just it’s hard. It’s hard to win golf tournaments. Yeah, especially around here. You’ve had maybe a couple of runaway winners over the years, but it always seems to be a very tight finish at this golf course. I think it’s the nature of the golf course, it’s the nature of what’s at stake.

“I walked into the dining in the locker room yesterday, and I sat with Shane [Lowry] and Tyrrell Hatton], and they were both saying, ‘Jeez, when we finished, we were like one or two behind, and then all of a sudden we’re seven behind. I said, boys, there’s a long way to go. There’s a lot can happen in a golf tournament over 36 holes or even 18 holes.

“I certainly didn’t think I was home and dry after Friday night, and I knew I still needed work to do. But I still thought I would need to shoot under-par to get the job done, but thankfully I did enough.” 

McIlroy added, “I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the grand slam, and then this year I realised it’s just really difficult to win the Masters.” 

Asked to describe the differences between this year and last, McIlroy said he doesn’t anticipate a competitive fall-off in the forthcoming majors. 

“I said at the start of the weekend here I felt like the Grand Slam was the destination, and I realised it wasn’t. I’m on this journey to, I don’t know. I just won my sixth major, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot with my game and my body. I don’t want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just — I don’t want to say a stop on the journey, but yeah, it’s just a part of the journey.

“I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well. I’ve waited so long to win the Masters, and all of a sudden I win two in a row. So I still want to enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I go back to play competitive golf, 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.”