Eleven years in eighteen holes, eleven years in one moment. Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters the only way he knows how to.
Chaos.
The floodgates have been opened once again and it feels like McIlroy is embarking on his golfing career again. Given that major championships tend to be won in bunches, as he did between 2011-2014, there is no reason why he can’t go on to complete even more history and win all four major championships this summer.
That’s right. The Grand Slam is complete. The Rory Slam is on.
Once tipped to rival Tiger Woods after he won for major championships by the age of 25, McIlroy won’t get to fifteen majors but he can go on a barnstorming run of titles that could see him etch his name alongside Woods as just the second man to hold all four majors at once.
Irish golf enjoyed a sensational trophy-laden period between 2007 and 2014 and perhaps McIlroy’s win at Augusta National last night can queue another stampede of titles coming to this island.
A burden has been lifted. This version of Rory McIlroy is by far a better player than the swashbuckling killer that cruised to four majors in double quick time, but after finally getting over the line after eleven years without a major and fourteen years after his Masters heartbreak in 2011, a Rory of a certain vintage could return to conquer the remaining three this year.
“What came out of me on the last green there in the playoff was, you know, at least 11 years, if not 14 years of pent-up emotion. It’s been 14 long years, but thankfully I got the job done,” he said last night.
McIlroy became the first Irishman to win the green jacket and he will win enough majors to become the greatest European golfer ever.
The question is, will he be elated to get to five or disappointed not to get ten? He can certainly get to eight and he can do that as soon as the end of July.
How amazing would it be to celebrate a Rory slam at the Open Championship in Royal Portrush? Another venue where he has scar tissue after hooking his opening tee shot of the tournament out of bounds in 2019.
The major championship venues are all tailor-made for McIlroy to make hay while he can.
Quail Hollow is the scene for next month’s PGA Championship, a golf course where he has already won four times, including a demolition job on Xander Schauffele last year.
At the US Open he has six successive top-10 finishes including back to back runner-up finishes and he would undoubtedly love to right the wrongs of the 2023 and 2024 editions.
Then of course Portrush, Shane Lowry’s homecoming will be in full swing this July and how amazing would it be if he were to hand over the Claret Jug to Rory on home soil.
The stars aligned for McIlroy on Sunday and in true Pádraig Harrington Carnoustie fashion he did his level best to throw it away but the truth is the entire week of the Masters was a symbol of the current golfing landscape.
There is absolutely no way that you should win any major championship after having four double bogeys but McIlroy’s best trait is his resilience, to keep coming back when the chips are down, even if he just shouldn’t come back, he just does.
Nobody was truly able to make a sustained run at him on Sunday. Justin Rose, despite making ten birdies was not without his mistakes while Ludvig Åberg and Scottie Scheffler will rue countless missed opportunities over the weekend.
McIlroy has been the best player in the world by a country mile in a season where there have been no other standout performers so far.
The big question now is what does McIlroy strive for next? He should be thinking of winning all four majors this season. The courses are made for him and his form is as good as it has ever been and with the major monkey now off his back, he is no longer burdened by an inexplicable major drought.
With the shackles off, a vintage front running McIlroy could return to the majors and blitz everybody to take the lot.
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