AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Wearing a green jacket that has neither been dry-cleaned nor tailored, Rory McIlroy stepped into the news conference room at Augusta National on Tuesday, a Masters champion for an entire year now, without the burden of pressure and expectations that had become all too familiar.
"I feel so much more relaxed," McIlroy said. "It doesn't make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but yeah, just more relaxed about it all."
With the Masters victory he coveted now secured and the historic grand slam a part of his legacy, a more comfortable McIlroy emerged, one that believes he can have more success going forward, especially at Augusta National.
"I know that I can do it now," McIlroy said. "So that should make it a little easier for me to go out and play the golf I want to play."
In the immediate future, that looks like defending his Masters victory, which McIlroy said Tuesday might include being more aggressive off the tee this year. But when it comes to the long view on the rest of his career, McIlroy is optimistic that here, at the place where he came to dread the long wait to Thursday, will be where he has the best chance to add his major total.
"I think when you've had the experiences that I've had around here, good and bad, I think that can stand to you," McIlroy said. "I feel like I'm still young, but I'm very experienced. This is my 18th start. I do feel like I've got another hopefully 10 good shots at this. Not that I don't at the other majors, but I just think that everything here is a little more predictable. I just think the more experience you have around this golf course, the better it is."
Unlike other years where he has arrived on property well into the tournament week, McIlroy has been on the grounds since Saturday. He took in the final round of the Augusta National Women's Amateur that day and handed out trophies at the Drive, Chip and Putt competition Sunday before playing the course with his dad, Gerry.
The five-time major winner played nine holes Monday and basked in the biggest galleries, which serenaded him with cheers and applause as if it was a tournament day. As McIlroy pointed out, the chants and quips from the patrons have also evolved.
"Now instead of it being 'come on, Rory, you know you can do this,' it's 'back to back!'" McIlroy said. "There's a real positive connotation to it instead of, 'geez, Rory, we've been waiting a while. When are you going to get this done?' It is so nice to walk around property or be out on the golf course and just not have that hanging over me, like it feels that it's a big weight off my shoulders."
Freed up from that weight, McIlroy will look to post his best finish so far this season, which has been less successful than last year's early run. In the lead-up to the year's first major in 2025, McIlroy won both the Players Championship and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This year, his best finish is a tie for second at the Genesis Invitational.
McIlroy admitted that his mind has been on not just getting back to Augusta but all of the festivities that come with returning as a defending champion. Chief among them is the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night. Even the fact that he couldn't get inside that room for that exclusive meal for so long is something McIlroy allowed to affect him.
On Tuesday, he told a tale of coming to the club last year to have dinner with Justin Rose on that Tuesday night and stumbling into an awkward moment as that dinner was ongoing.
"It was weird, I was pulling up Magnolia Lane, and you get to the circle, and I'm like, well, do I go and park way over at the parking lot? Because I'm not going to park in the champions parking lot," McIlroy said. "Then at that specific moment, the champions were having their cocktails out on the balcony. I'm like I don't want to valet, get out, they're going to see me and it's going to be weird. Yeah, thankfully that was the last time that I needed to do that."
Once McIlroy gets through the Champions Dinner this year, the meal and a speech that he's been thinking about "a lot," he will finally be able to turn his full attention back to the tournament. It may no longer consume him in the same way it did from 2014 to last year, but McIlroy sees that as a feature of this accomplishment, not a bug.
"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," McIlroy said. "I think what I've realized 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 realized it wasn't the destination ... there's still a lot I want to do."
