Fulfilling the customary tradition that calls for each Masters champion to donate a club to Augusta National Golf Club, Rory McIlroy left behind his 7-iron. Or so he found out days later.

Apparently, amid the hoopla after McIlroy beat Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to win the green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam, McIlroy’s manager Sean Flaherty simply took care of that bit of convention himself and presented it to club officials without informing the new champion.

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“I didn’t realise this,” McIlroy said Tuesday at Pebble Beach Golf Links, “but I flew back the day after on the Monday, and I basically didn’t see my golf clubs since like [after] the playoff and I saw that my 7-iron was missing. I was like, that’s a pretty important club. Sean had already given it to the club; he just didn’t tell me. That’s fine, I’ll get a new 7-iron. If there was one I was going to give the club, it was probably going to be that one.”

Winning the Masters capped off an incredible early season stretch for the Northern Irishman, who is making his season debut this week on the PGA Tour. He is the defending champion of this week’s $US20 million signature event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and in March he also won his second Players Championship in a playoff over eventual US Open winner J.J. Spaun.

Predictably, McIlroy was drawn into the recent debate over whether or not the Players should be classified as a major championship after the PGA Tour promoted its flagship event with the words, “March is going to be major.” The play on words was obvious. It also seemed inspired by the PGA Championship’s slogan since it moved to May: “This is Major.”

A five-time major winner, McIlroy, 36, wasn’t on board with the idea of deigning to call the Players a major.

“Look, I’d love to have seven majors instead of five, that sounds great,” he said with a grin. “I think the Players is one of the best golf tournaments in the world. I don’t think anyone disputes that or argues that. I think from a player perspective it’s amazing. I think from an on-site fan experience it’s amazing. It’s an amazing golf course, location, venue.

“But … I’m a traditionalist, I’m a historian of the game. We have four major championships. If you want to see what five major championships looks like, look at the women’s game. I don’t know how well that’s (gone) for them. But it’s the Players. It doesn’t need to be anything else. I would say it’s got more of an identity than the PGA Championship does at the minute. So from an identity standpoint, I think the Players has got it nailed. It stands on its own without the label, I guess.”

So what is the identity of the PGA Championship? “I think ‘Glory’s Last Shot,’” he said, referring to the PGA’s former slogan. “I think it needs to go back to August.”

As significant as his victory at Augusta National was, McIlroy said he doesn’t think about that magical April day that often. “Only when I’m reminded or only when I see something or I’m going over to [CBS broadcaster] Jim Nantz’s house later; I’m doing an interview in the green jacket,” he said. “It’s done, it’s wonderful, I’m happy that it’s over in a way, but I want to move on, and I’ve got more goals and there’s more things I want to try to accomplish and achieve.”

Another ‘other’ significant achievement last year was leading Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York. McIlroy had said after the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome that winning on the road is one of the more difficult achievements in sports.

So, which was more difficult, winning the Masters or the Ryder Cup?

“I think they were different,” he said after a pause. “The Masters was more me against myself, and the Ryder Cup was me against 50,000 New Yorkers.”