Rory McIlroy Shares Why He Never Wants To Re-Live The Sunday Afternoon He Won The Masters

Finally slipping on the green jacket in April to complete the career Grand Slam had to produce one of the greatest feelings Rory McIlroy has ever felt both on and off the golf course. After securing his Masters victory and dropping to his knees on the 18th green at Augusta National in celebration, McIlroy explained that his emotions were solely focused on a feeling of relief, and based on his recent admission about that Sunday afternoon, he wasn't lying.

McIlroy had gone 11 years without winning a major championship before crossing the line again and becoming just the sixth player in the modern era to complete the career Grand Slam. To go more than a decade without getting it done on the game's biggest stages had to have created an unbearable burden. Now that he's gotten rid of it, he understandably never wants to feel those emotions again, even the ones he felt coming down the stretch at the Masters he ultimately won.

Rory McIlroy finally won his first Masters in 2025. (Kyle Terada-Imagn Images)

"Defeating my own mind was sort of the big thing for me and getting over that hurdle," McIlroy said ahead of this week's Truist Championship in Philadelphia. "Look, I’m just glad that it’s done. I don’t ever want to have to go back to that Sunday afternoon again. I’m glad that I finished the way I did, and we can all move on with our lives."

SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.

McIlroy even has a specific moment from his final round that Sunday where the weight of the potential moment became heaviest.

"I said this to people, the worst I felt on Sunday at Augusta was probably when I held the birdie putt on 10 to go 4 ahead, because I'm like, oh, I really can't mess this up now. There's that pressure," McIlroy continued.

"You know that you're not just trying to win another tournament, you're trying to become part of history, and that has a certain weight to it. I've certainly felt that at Augusta over the years."

As McIlroy feels relieved for perhaps the first time in more than a decade, it will be incredibly intriguing to see how he goes about his business over the rest of the 2025 campaign.

This week's Truist Championship marks McIlroy's first individual start since putting on the green jacket a month ago. He'll tee it up in the PGA Championship next week at Quail Hollow, a track he's picked up multiple wins on throughout his career.