{"id":388268,"date":"2026-04-08T15:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/388268\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:13:11","slug":"mcilroy-on-not-going-more-irish-for-masters-2026-dinner-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/388268\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy on not going \u2018more Irish\u2019 for Masters 2026 dinner \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rory-mcilroy\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rory-mcilroy\">Rory McIlroy<\/a> admits he took more time thinking about his speech at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-masters\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-masters\">Masters<\/a> champions\u2019 dinner than he did planning the menu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As is tradition at Augusta, the defending champion hosted an event in the clubhouse for all previous winners of the green jacket at which he got to select what everyone eats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An assembly of golfing greats tucked into appetisers of peach and ricotta flatbread, rock shrimp tempura, bacon-wrapped dates and grilled elk sliders for starters, followed by Yellowfin tuna carpaccio for a first course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The mains were a choice of Wagyu filet mignon or seared salmon with traditional Irish champ, sauteed Brussels sprouts, glazed carrots with brown butter and crispy onion rings, with sticky toffee pudding and vanilla ice cream to finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Wines for the evening were a 2015 Salon Brut champagne, a 2022 Domaine Leflaive Batard Montrachet and a 1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild from Pauillac in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It is reportedly the most expensive champions dinner hosted, at an estimated cost of around \u20ac300 a head.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy tastes some of his dishes in the kitchen ahead of the champions' dinner at Augusta. Photograph: The Masters\/X\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/VDX2VGJVWFCWTAWWDR55EWFBBQ.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"630\"\/>Rory McIlroy tastes some of his dishes in the kitchen ahead of the champions&#8217; dinner at Augusta. Photograph: The Masters\/X <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI\u2019ve thought about it a lot. Honestly, I\u2019ve probably thought about that [the speech] more than the food,\u201d said McIlroy ahead of his dinner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cSo many legends of the game there. Obviously there\u2019s two [Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson] that won\u2019t be with us this year, which is a shame, but I\u2019m sure they will be with us in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cBut talking in front of that group, I want to say the right things and make sure I get my feelings across of how grateful I am to be a part of that group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI\u2019ll follow Ben Crenshaw\u2019s lead. I know he\u2019ll direct the run of show a little bit, but I have a few remarks that I want to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On the choice of menu, McIlroy said: \u201cI was trying to achieve something that I would enjoy but \u2013 and it ties back to experiences that I\u2019ve had \u2013 also wanted it to be something that all the other people in that room would enjoy as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cPeople keep asking me, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you go more Irish?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Because I want to enjoy the dinner as well\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s been fun to work through. The fun part was getting access to that wonderful wine cellar that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy admits he took more time thinking about his speech at the Masters champions\u2019 dinner than he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,1394,160609,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-388268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-the-masters","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}