Rory McIlroy is back in Ireland, with this week’s Irish Open at the K Club outside Dublin offering a rare chance for the reigning Masters champion to stop and reflect. On his childhood, on his lone Irish Open victory and, of course, on his career-defining 2025 season.

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“I’ve got some great memories of the K Club,” McIlroy said Wednesday of the parkland resort in County Kildare where he won the 2016 Irish Open. “I came here to watch the Ryder Cup in ’06 with my dad and to win my only Irish Open here nine years ago. It’s got a lot of great memories for me, and hopefully I can add to them this week.”

His return to the island of Ireland, only five weeks after the Open Championship was held at Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland, seems to have reinvigorated the 36-year-old. McIlroy spent a week on the west coast of Ireland leading up to the Irish Open and was inspired when asked what course he would play for the rest of his life if only one was available. The answer was Royal County Down.

As busy as a home national open can be for a superstar, the Irish Open is also a marvelous chance to stop and smell the roses. After Thursday’s opening round at the K Club, McIlroy will wear Augusta National’s green jacket for a Q and A with fans while his other three major trophies will be on display in the Championship Village throughout the week.

“It’s absolutely amazing to be able to share that with people,” McIlroy said. “I keep saying—over the years when I dreamed of winning the green jacket, I always said, if I ever did it, I’d never take it off, and I probably haven’t worn it as much as I should have. So any opportunity to put it on, alongside the other major trophies, is very, very cool. I’m excited for that.”

McIlroy’s victory at the Masters in April cemented his status as just the sixth golfer in history to complete the career Grand Slam. He had searched for 10 years for the last piece of the puzzle, at Augusta, after winning the U.S. Open (2011), Open Championship (2014) and two PGA Championship titles (2012, 2014).

After collapsing in tears of joy and relief at Augusta National following his playoff win over Justin Rose, McIlroy experienced a lull in form by his standards as he worked to restore motivation. Also a winner of this year’s Players Championship, he hasn’t won since the Masters and managed a total of four top-10s on the PGA Tour, including a T-7 at the Open at Portrush.

But he also has one eye on this month’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage. The European team hasn’t won a Cup on U.S. soil since McIlroy was part of a comeback victory at Medinah in 2012. If he and his 11 teammates can pull off an away victory in New York, something McIlroy has dubbed one of the greatest accomplishments in golf, he said 2025 would be his career-best year.

That’s, of course acknowledging his 2014 season, when he won two majors, as well as a WGC Bridgestone Invitational, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai all in one year.

“I guess it’s the year that everything came together for me,” McIlroy said when asked to put 2025 into words. “[The Masters] was basically the one piece of the puzzle that was left for me to complete. When I look at my career and my whole picture as a golfer, I’ve done everything I wanted to. Everything after that is a bonus, but you have to reassess your goals.

“The one thing for me—obviously, I’d love to win this week and next week at Wentworth—but the one thing for me this year to reassess my goals, an away Ryder Cup, after everything that’s happened this year … 2025 would be the best year of my career. If I did have a better year in the game, I’d love to see it.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com