In a career littered with highlights, McIlroy feels this year might be his best ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully it\u2019s not, but it could well go down as the highest point or the best year of my career,\u201d he said. \u201cI still don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m finished yet, and it would be nice to have similar years to this in the future, but I\u2019ll always look back on 2025 and think it was the top, or if not, near the top of what I\u2019ve done in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Processing the green jacket<\/p>\n
Almost eight months on from his Masters triumph, McIlroy is still grappling with the emotions of ending such a long wait for the green jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it\u2019s a blur. Some of it I\u2019ve tried to forget. And some of it I\u2019ve tried to keep in the memory bank,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember all of it, and I\u2019ve tried not to watch it back too much, because I feel like when you watch it back a lot, you don\u2019t remember it through your eyes and through your feelings \u2013 you remember it through watching what you\u2019ve seen on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve tried not to watch it back too much, but every time I see that scene on the 18th green, it still gets me a little emotional and choked up, because when you\u2019ve wanted something for so long and it finally comes, just that release of emotion was very, very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gettyimages-2209826973.jpg\")
The pressure cooker<\/p>\n
McIlroy does not hide the intensity of the challenge he faced in closing out Augusta.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I never want to feel like that on a golf course again,\u201d he admitted. \u201cYour legs are weak and you feel like you want to throw up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with victory, he says part of him wanted the chance to finish it in a more commanding fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe battle that day was with myself. I stood on that 13th tee with a four or five-shot lead, and I\u2019d love to be in that position again and see if I could finish it off the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think if I was ever going to win the Masters, [with] my journey in that tournament, there was never going to be a way that I won the Masters where it was going to be smooth sailing. It was always going to be this sort of roller coaster, and it probably was the appropriate way for it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Losing his way \u2013 and finding his next goal<\/p>\n
While winning the Masters fulfilled a lifelong dream, McIlroy admits it knocked him off track for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cI climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that, you\u2019ve got to make your way back down, and you\u2019ve got to look for another mountain to climb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing feeling when it happens, and obviously that sort of afterglow lasts for quite a while, but then you have to realize that life goes on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a goal setter, and I feel like I can get a little bit lost if I don\u2019t have a direction or something that I\u2019m striving towards. And honestly, I\u2019d say for the couple of months after the Masters, I felt a little bit directionless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to enjoy it so much, but four weeks go by and you\u2019re trying to get ready for the next major championship \u2026 just time goes on and you have to reassess your goals and reset, and I probably didn\u2019t do as good a job of that as I could have.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy says it\u2019s not the first time he\u2019s let a post-high comedown affect him, having experienced the same when he first became world number one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a goal of mine for the season, starting off in 2012, and I ended up getting to world No.1 at the end of February, so it was this really quick ascension,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I remember getting up the next morning and being like, \u2018Is this it?\u2019 I thought it was going to change my life. I thought it was going to feel different, and it didn\u2019t. I was like, \u2018I have to go and brush my teeth, just like I did yesterday morning.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the same thing. But that was a good lesson and a good reminder that you can have these goals and have things that you want to achieve, but then what comes next? And what comes next is that you have got to go and do it all over again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the thing that separates the good sports people from the ones that want to be great, that never-ending ambition just to want to try to get better and do more.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rory-mcilroy-slow-play-irish-open.jpg\")
Looking forward<\/p>\n
McIlroy has now overcome his Masters hangover and is looking forward once more with a fresh set of goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nice thing is with winning the Masters, you get to go back every year, and I\u2019d love to have another chance to win another one,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
But Augusta is far from his only target.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked about trying to win at some of the most important venues in golf,\u201d he said when asked about his goals now that he\u2019s ticked off the grand slam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week is one of them. You think about the tournaments and the people that have won at Royal Melbourne, and I think it is highly regarded within the golf world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky enough to win at Pebble Beach this year for the first time. Obviously, at Augusta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to win at St Andrews one day. I\u2019d love to win a US Open at Pebble Beach. There\u2019s a few venues that mean a bit more than some of the others, and that\u2019s something I\u2019d love to do one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to win more majors. I want to be part of more Ryder Cup teams.\u201d<\/p>\n