I’ve learnt you have to be the eternal optimist in this game, at any level, let alone when you’re trying to complete the career Grand Slam
It was the best day of my golf life and I’m very proud of myself – proud of never giving up. I’m proud of how I kept coming back, how I kept dusting myself off, not letting the disappointments get to me.
Winning the green jacket and becoming only the sixth player to achieve the career Grand Slam is a dream come true. I have dreamt about this moment for as long as I can remember.
This year was my 17th time at Augusta National, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time. I think the past 10 years of coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders, it weighed on me and I’m sort of wondering what we’re going to talk about going into next year’s Masters!
I’m absolutely honoured and thrilled, and so proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.
At the presentation ceremony, I mentioned that watching Tiger Woods do what he did here in 1997, and winning his first green jacket, I think that inspired so many of my generation to want to emulate what he did. There were times in my career when I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders, and I certainly didn’t make it easy in the final round.
I was nervous heading into the final round – it was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course. At the start of the day, it felt like I had a knot in my stomach, and I didn’t have much of an appetite all day. In that situation, your legs feel a little jelly-like, and those nerves are natural, and they are all good things. If you aren’t feeling like that, I think that’s more of a problem.
It’s such a battle in your head, trying to stay in the present and hit the next shot good – and hit the next shot good. My battle was with myself. At the end there, it was with Justin Rose, but my battle was with my mind.
In a funny way, I feel like the double-bogey on the first hole sort of settled my nerves. Walking to the second tee, the first thing that popped into my head was Jon Rahm a couple years ago making double and going on to win this tournament. So at least my mind was in the right place, and I was at least thinking positively about it.
It was a complete roller-coaster of a day. It was very tricky out there and it almost felt more like a US Open than a Masters, at one point with how firm and fast the greens got. I am proud of how I bounced back from the double on one and the double on 13. I don’t know if any previous Masters champions had four doubles during the week.
After making the winning putt in the playoff, what came out of me on the last green was at least 11 years, if not 14 years, of pent-up emotion. It was all relief. There wasn’t much joy in that reaction. It was all relief. And then, the joy came pretty soon after that.
Since 2011 (when McIlroy held a four-shot lead with nine holes to play at Augusta National), I think it’s so ironic – I got to my locker on Sunday morning and there was a note in there from Angel Cabrera, just wishing me luck. Angel was the player I played with on the final day in 2011, so that was a nice touch. Thankfully, I got the job done.
It’s fair to say it’s been a very difficult journey to get here. I’ve carried the burden of trying to complete the career Grand Slam since July 2014 (after winning the Open Championship).
If I look back now to 2011 when I had that lead on the back nine, I would see a young man that didn’t really know a whole lot about the world. I probably would see a young man with a lot of learning to do and a lot of growing up to do, maybe I didn’t understand myself. I didn’t understand why I got myself in a great position then, and I probably didn’t understand why I let it slip. That experience, going through the hardships of tough losses, inspired me to just stay the course, just keep believing.
I’ve literally made my dreams come true, and I would say to every boy and girl reading this: believe in your dreams. If you work hard enough and if you put the effort in, you can achieve anything you want.
