AUGUSTA, Ga. — The green jacket had barely settled onto Rory McIlroy’s 5-foot-9 frame as the freshly minted Masters champion a year ago when he posed this question to the packed interview room at Augusta National:
“What are we all going to talk about next year?’’
That was McIlroy’s verbal retort to the assembled media after not only ending an 11-year major championship drought, but capturing his first Masters and completing the coveted career Grand Slam.
With every major championship he’d entered since his last win, in 2014, the questions had come to McIlroy in rapid succession, and the narrative had become suffocating.
Would he ever win a Masters with the baggage he was carrying?
Finally, in April 2025, McIlroy answered, staving off Justin Rose in a playoff.
So, that comment from McIlroy to open his winner’s press conference was his public exhale.
A year later, here we are and there is a fresh question in place for McIlroy: What now?
Rory McIlroy slaps hands with a patron during his practice round at the Masters on April 7 2026 at Augusta National. Getty Images “I think 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?’’ McIlroy said Tuesday in advance of his Masters defense. “I think that’s the story.’’
No player has defended his Masters title since Tiger Woods in 2001-2002.
“There’s still a lot that I want to do,’’ McIlroy said. “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.
“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.’’
Rory McIlroy hit a tee shot on the 14th hole during his practice round on April 7, 2026 at Augusta National. Michael Madrid-Imagn Images The prevailing thought is that McIlroy comes to Augusta now completely liberated from the dark questions that followed — and dogged — him before winning last year.
“I think the nice thing now is instead of it being, ‘Come on, Rory, you know you can do this,’ it’s [trying to win] 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’s just very different, and maybe that’s just my perception of it. But 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.’’
Asked what he believes will be the most difficult element of repeating, McIlroy said, “Probably the 90 other players that are in the field.’’
“There’s so many great players and so many players with so much experience on this golf course, it’s not quite like some of the other major championships. It seems like you get a lot of the same guys contending year in and year out. That’s the challenge.’’
The final so-called distraction McIlroy faced as the defending champion came Tuesday night when he hosted the annual Champions Dinner.
“People keep asking me why didn’t you go more Irish?’’ McIlroy, who’s from Northern Ireland, said of the menu.
“And I said, ‘Because I want to enjoy the dinner as well.’ ’’
The best question asked of McIlroy on Tuesday was about any fear of missing out he had in previous Masters Tuesdays, seeing the past champions get ready for the clubhouse dinner he wasn’t invited to.
He called that feeling every year “not great,’’ adding, “I wish I was a part of it.’’
Then he launched into a funny story about last year.
“Myself and Justin Rose actually went for dinner at the club last year on the Tuesday night with a few of the Augusta National members,’’ he recalled. “And 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 players parking lot? Because I’m not going to park in the champions parking lot.
“Then at that specific moment, the champions were having their cocktails out on the balcony [and] I’m like, ‘I don’t want to valet and get out [because] they’re going to see me and it’s going to be weird.’ So I had this really awkward moment with it all last year.
“Thankfully, that was the last time that I needed to do that.’’
