What changed for McIlroy after winning first green jacket?
How did McIlroy react to Fleetwood’s hole-in-one at Masters?
What changed for McIlroy after winning first green jacket?
Which tournament is McIlroy most likely to win again?
Rory McIlroy, the defending Masters champion after winning his first green jacket in 2025, displayed a carefree and relaxed attitude during the 2026 Masters Par‑3 Contest, cheering enthusiastically when Tommy Fleetwood made a hole‑in‑one and noting how the victory has eased the pressure on his game.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Hundreds of spectators huddled around the No. 4 tee box here at the Masters Par 3 Contest, and the man wearing a grey sweater, who owns a green jacket, threw his arms into the air first.
Tommy Fleetwood’s tee shot landed several feet behind the pin, but Rory McIlroy seemed to know where the ball was headed. Straight for the cup.
Rory knows. By now, he’s a veteran of this place.
Sure enough, the ball’s backspin and the green’s slope sent Fleetwood’s shot rolling toward the cup, and soon McIlroy wasn’t the only one with his arms in the air.
And when the ball disappeared into the hole for an ace, Fleetwood smiled, but nobody smiled bigger or longer than the defending Masters champion.
McIlroy was having a blast, and why not?
If you want to know what a man looks like who’s had a truckload of pressure removed from his shoulders, you need only get a glimpse of McIlroy on Wednesday afternoon.
Rory McIlroy ‘so much more relaxed’ after getting first green jacket
McIlroy was a portrait of carefree and relaxed, which isn’t to say he doesn’t want to win another Masters or that he won’t orchestrate a rare repeat, but the pressure of trying to go back-to-back is nothing like trying to shake the label of being the best active golfer to never win a Masters.
He’s off that list now, and onto the career Grand Slam list.
“It’s completely different,” McIlroy said of returning to Augusta National as a Masters champion. “I feel so much more relaxed. I know that I’m going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks that the champions get here.
“It doesn’t make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but, yeah, just more relaxed about it all.”
McIlroy didn’t need a green jacket to legitimize his career. Nobody’s been better for longer than McIlroy since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson descended from their respective peaks.
And, still, three majors isn’t four. Anyway, the other three don’t award a green jacket.
McIlroy really, really likes that green jacket.
Maybe, because he had to wait so long to slip into his 38 regular.
“To come back and do this press conference in a green jacket, that feels pretty good,” McIlroy said. “Look, it’s been an amazing 12 months, bringing this thing all around the world, the excitement on people’s faces when they see it, the excitement that I still get putting it on.”
Rory McIlroy likes his chances to win another Masters
This tournament long had been a case of shoulda, woulda, coulda for Rory. He squandered chances in 2011 and 2018 by wilting in the final round.
Just when it looked like he might never get his green jacket, McIlroy carded a 6-under 66 in his second round last year, then posted another 66 on moving day to surge into first.
A hiccup on Amen Corner and a bogey on No. 18 pushed McIlroy into a sudden-death playoff with Justin Rose. After McIlroy rolled in a birdie to win the playoff, he sent his putter flying and put his hands on his head, a picture of relief meeting exhilaration.
If you squinted, you could almost see the extra tonnage that came from a career of Masters misses evaporate from his shoulders. That weight is gone forever.
“It is so nice to walk around property or be out on the golf course and, yeah, just not have that hanging over me,” McIlroy said, “like it feels that it’s a big weight off my shoulders.”
McIlroy now owns five career major wins, having won the PGA Championship twice. At 36, he’s young enough to tack on a few more. If he’s to get another major win, which tournament is he likeliest to win?
This one.
That’s how Rory tells it, anyway.
“When you’ve had the experiences that I’ve had around here, good and bad, I think that can (help) you,” he said. “The other major venues, we don’t go back to the same place every year. … I’m very experienced (at the Masters). I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is my 18th start.”
Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods are the only golfers to go back-to-back here, and although McIlroy made no bold predictions about this week, he’s quite obviously got a bounce about him.
He didn’t bother with practice swings during the Par 3 Contest, opting instead for a swift and confident pace. He seemed the perfect blend of dialed in, but joyous, while peppering greens.
And when his playing partner aced No. 4 one day before the real tournament begins, McIlroy looked like the happiest man on a course full of happy people.
