Golf’s most highly-anticipated tournament is fast approaching
Scottie Scheffler risked angering his fellow PGA Tour pros with his 2025 menu picks(Image: Getty)
Scottie Scheffler faced criticism for his simplistic Masters Champions Dinner menu last year. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy has kept to his word by including elk on his own menu, which he has put together ahead of next month’s Masters.
The Irishman will arrive at Augusta National in early April hoping to retain the green jacket he won in thrilling fashion 12 months ago.
After storming to the top of the leaderboard going into the final round, McIlroy needed a play-off against Justin Rose to decide the title. Fortunately for the County Down star, he kept his composure in the decider and clinched victory to finally complete the career Grand Slam.
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Among the privileges of winning the Masters is the opportunity to host a Champions Dinner at the following year’s tournament, with the defending champion selecting the menu for the occasion. For his options, McIlroy has turned to some home comforts, including Irish champ, his mother’s bacon-wrapped dates and elk.
It follows a year when Scottie Scheffler risked angering his fellow former Augusta champions, having suggested he wasn’t planning to change his menu at all. Scheffler’s menu in 2023 proved enormously popular, so much so that when he won the Masters for a second time in 2024, the world No. 1 considered serving up the same food once more.
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An unwritten rule dictates that the menu changes each time, meaning Scheffler didn’t rinse and repeat, though his second selection wasn’t too different from the first. The American only implemented a handful of changes, while keeping things simple with crowd-pleasing starters and a simple choice of main courses.
Following his own menu announcement, McIlroy revealed he had contemplated the selections even before he clinched a maiden Masters title last year. The five-time major champion said: “I think it would be pretty presumptuous to have a menu in your head before you actually win the tournament.
Rory McIlroy won the Masters for the first time in 2025(Image: Getty)
“But I always thought about, if I win the Masters one day, what would I want it to look like? What would I like to serve? I felt this time around, I wanted to do something that I would enjoy, but I wanted to do something that all other champions would enjoy, as well.”
While discussing some of his choices, he added: “My Mum does these really, really nice dates stuffed with goat cheese wrapped in bacon, so I put those on the appetisers list. So thanks to Rosie for that one.
Rory McIlroy’s menu in full(Image: The Masters)
“In the build-up to the Masters last year, I got this big shipment of elk and I was eating a lot of that, and I didn’t want elk to be the main course because I didn’t know if everyone would like that. I incorporated that into the appetisers so I’m doing grilled elk sliders, which I think is fun.”
It comes after McIlroy hinted at including elk on his menu last year, having said when asked about his Champions Dinner plans: “I’ve been into like wild game recently, so like venison, elk, stuff like that. I don’t know if that might be in it. That sorta fuelled this run, so maybe something like that.”