{"id":396249,"date":"2026-04-13T13:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/396249\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:11:11","slug":"mcilroys-home-town-celebrates-historic-masters-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/396249\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy’s home town celebrates historic Masters win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy’s home village is celebrating his US Masters win in style.<\/p>\n

A local bakery in Holywood, Co Down, produced 300 biscuits emblazoned with his image and locals queued to buy the specially commissioned sweet treats paying the princely sum of \u00a31.30 each.<\/p>\n

At his home club in Holywood, members were still bathing in the reflected glory of his US Masters victory.<\/p>\n

Lady Captain Kathy Mackey said the club was proud of its association with the Grand Slam winner.<\/p>\n

“Even during The Open last year, you couldn’t have got a tea time on this course, because people who were visiting The Open were also coming to play at Holywood because of Rory.”<\/p>\n

\"cookies
\nSweet treats for sale in Holywood<\/p>\n

She said the course was now drawing attention around the world and people were coming specifically to play it.<\/p>\n

Holywood also has a lengthy waiting list for youth membership, something they’re putting down to the ‘Rory effect’.<\/p>\n

The club has replicas of three of McIlroy’s four grand slam trophies.<\/p>\n

The only one missing is the US Masters trophy as the rules around replicas of it are very tight.<\/p>\n

\"replica
\nHolywood GC has replicas of three of Rory’s four grand slam trophies<\/p>\n

Last night, the golf club erupted in cheers as he tapped in a putt to win by one on 12-under-par at Augusta National.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old became the fourth man to win consecutives Masters titles, having first secured the green jacket – and career grand slam – last year.<\/p>\n

Joining Nick Faldo with six major wins, McIlroy did not make it easy on himself – or fans who were at times left with their heads in their hands.<\/p>\n

Those watching on were well used to the nerve-wracking rollercoaster of emotions that comes with supporting the Co Down man.<\/p>\n

Tables filled up early in the night, with around 150 people cheering on the hometown hero.<\/p>\n

\"children
\nYoung fans were busy creating good luck signs for Rory<\/p>\n

Six clear on Friday night, what could have been a procession was anything but for McIlroy. The final round was typical McIlroy, who looked to be playing himself out of it on the front nine before rallying with a series of birdies.<\/p>\n

With a two-shot cushion on the last hole, he made it tough for himself by carving his drive into the trees on the right before hitting his approach shot into the bunker.<\/p>\n

He emerged from the sand unscathed and two-putted to secure the title by a shot.<\/p>\n

\"Rory
\nRory McIlroy reacts after sinking his final putt on the 18th green<\/p>\n

There were cheers and hugs as fans rose to their feet when McIlroy finally secured a second green jacket, inspiring the next generation who hope to follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n

Sullivan Upper School, where McIlroy studied, was represented among those cheering on.<\/p>\n

Zach Woods, 19, said he and his friends thought the victory was “really inspiring”.<\/p>\n

\"a
\nThere were plenty of highs and lows for fans watching the final round at Holywood GC<\/p>\n

He said: “It is great to be honest, to see a boy from our community achieve such great things.<\/p>\n

“It pushes us to strive to do the best that we can to achieve the things that we love.”<\/p>\n

Ollie Keown, 18, came over from Scotland under the guise of revising for exams, but somehow found time to cheer on McIlroy.<\/p>\n

He said this year\u2019s victory was better than 2025, which he said made him “more nervous”.<\/p>\n

He said: “I\u2019m just amazed, stunned – I loved every second of it.”<\/p>\n

On returning to Scotland, he said: “We\u2019ll see how long the celebrations last.”<\/p>\n

Hamish Johnson, 18, said he “never doubted” McIlroy, adding: “He\u2019s got the potential to be the best ever.”<\/p>\n

Celebrating the win, Leah James said “it was just fantastic” to watch along at Holywood – having had to sneakily try and keep up with the action while on night shift last year.<\/p>\n

Leah, who is from Bangor and a member at Holywood, said McIlroy brought a lot of interest to the club.<\/p>\n

She said the back-to-back wins were “incredible”, reflecting: “He was just so calm and so collected this year and seeing him do it made my day – just happy for him.”<\/p>\n

Back at Augusta, an emotional McIlroy thanked those in Holywood for their support.<\/p>\n

Asked for his message to those watching at home during the green jacket presentation, he said: “I was a little kid with a dream and the support that I had from my family, friends and everyone back at home – some people probably thought it was outlandish to dream the things that I wanted to do but I had amazing support back home and I can\u2019t thank them all enough for that continued support.”<\/p>\n

Additional reporting PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy’s home village is celebrating his US Masters win in style. A local bakery in Holywood, Co…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-396249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396249","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=396249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}