Winning a second Green Jacket may not have been the best thing for the rest of the golf world, because Rory McIlroy is now “more motivated than I’ve ever been” as he returns to the course this week for the Truist Championship.
The World No. 2 held off Scottie Scheffler last month at Augusta National to become just the fourth golfer to win consecutive Masters championships and has kept a light schedule since then.
But McIlroy, who completed his career Grand Slam last year, seemed to have a message for the sporting world on Wednesday when he addressed reporters.
“I’ve spoke about this a lot, I felt like winning the Grand Slam was going to be this life-changing thing and in some ways it was, but in other ways I had to remember like, no, I still have a lot of my career left and I want to keep playing and keep competing,” he said. “So this year was, I think, validation for all the work that I’ve put in over the last few years to get myself back to this place where I’m winning majors.
“I’m excited for this week, I’m excited for Aronimink next week [PGA Championship], Shinnecock [US Open], Birkdale [Open]. I feel like, if anything, I’m more motivated after what happened at Augusta this year than I’ve ever been.”
McIlroy had gone through a bit of a downturn after he won the Masters in 2025, failing to make much noise in the PGA Championship and U.S. Open before a top-10 finish at the Open Championship and an eventful Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, where Team Europe defeated the Americans.
McIlroy fueled concerns last year that he was indifferent — even at the majors — following the career Grand Slam accomplishment at Augusta.
“Look, I climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb… I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks,” McIlroy said last year before the British Open.
The Truist Championship begins on Thursday at the Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina, where McIlroy has won four tournaments, including his first PGA Tour title in the Quail Hollow Championship, which was the former name of this week’s tournament.