'Walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was. That was the moment of greatest stress'

An abridged version of Rory McIlroy's considered reflections to the media after becoming the fourth golfer in history to win back to back Masters at Augusta

MEET THE PRESS: Masters champion Rory McIlroy at his post-round media conference: 'I think of all the big sports, it's the most challenging mentally.' Pic: Benjamin Gilbert/Augusta National/Getty Images

Q. Rory, the tee shot on 12, can you just take us through what you were trying to do, and if that was the line you were going for, what club you hit?

RORY McILROY: It was in off the left. That was where the wind was. I waited -- this is going back to one of my first-ever practice rounds here. I played a practice round with Tom Watson in 2009, and he said to me on the 12th tee he always waited until he felt where the wind should be and then just hit it. You know, just hit it as soon as you can.

That's what I did on 12. It was all over the place. When I stood up on the tee, it felt like it was off the right, and I looked at the 11th flag, it was blowing right to left. But I was patient, and I waited to feel where the wind should have been coming from, and I knew it was just a perfect 3/4 9-iron.

I aimed it at the middle of the bunker. Probably didn't anticipate it to drift as far right as it did. That's why you give yourself a little bit of margin for error. That was a really good golf shot at the right time and probably a golf shot I wouldn't have been able to hit yesterday if I didn't go to the range and try to figure a few things out and try to neutralize the ball flight a little bit. Huge shot in the tournament.

Q. Walk us through the third shot on 15.

RORY McILROY: So I wanted to lay back to where I could put enough spin on the ball. You're coming off that downslope to a very, very firm green, and I thought if I left myself too short of a yardage, then a wedge shot could skip through the green, especially with the wind being behind our back.

So I laid it up to a number that was like -- I think I had 108 or 107 to the pin, trying to pitch it like 100, seven or eight paces short and just let it skip up, which is a perfect 3/4 lob wedge for me with that little bit of help.

I think sometimes like you're going off a downslope, it's in a little bit of a valley area, and with wedge shots in particular with the wind, instead of the wind carrying the ball, it sort of knocked it down, and it didn't carry anywhere near as far as it needed to. Thankfully it hung up. It was pretty close to coming back into the water. Thanking my lucky stars with that one.

Q. What do you think this tournament and this golf course has taught you about life?

RORY McILROY: Good things come to those who wait maybe. Just keep going. I find myself in a very similar position today to where I was in the last round last year, two or three behind, but I played solid golf after that.

I was 4-under for an 11-hole stretch there, which is what I needed to do to give myself that cushion going up the last. I just tried really hard to focus on myself. I thought, if I could get to 14-under, I thought that everyone else would struggle to get to that score. So that was the number I had in my head. I got to 13 on the last and had that two-shot cushion.

I didn't quite get there, but yeah, just keep going. Keep your head down and keep it going. If you put the hours in and work on the right things, eventually it will come good for you.

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Q. What is it about this game where the player is never exactly the same one day to the next?

RORY McILROY: You have a lot of time to think. You're out there a long time. There's a long time between shots. There's a long time between rounds.

I think of all the big sports, it's the most challenging mentally. I think it's hard to stay in the same mental space for four days in a row because even -- I was in a great mental space, like say on the 13th tee shot, for example. All of my practice rounds up here, the weeks leading into it, Monday, Tuesday, great. I hit two left on Wednesday off the tee. Then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I didn't sniff hitting the fairway.

So it's just there's little things that happen that just start to make you second guess things. It's just very hard to stay, not in the right spot mentally, but the same spot mentally for a long period of time.

Q. I was just curious to ask how was it having your parents in attendance for this? How did that change the emotional experience for you?

RORY McILROY: I caught myself on the golf course a couple of times thinking about them, and I was like no, not yet, not yet. It's really cool to have them here.

They missed it last year, and the first thing I wanted to do was fly home to see them because I obviously wouldn't be sitting up here if it wasn't for them. I had to sort of convince them to come this year because they thought the reason I won last year was because they weren't here.

I said on the putting green that I'm glad we proved that wrong, so they can keep coming as long as they want.

Q. When John Carr congratulated you, I think his words were "Never a dull moment." Given you had a six-shot lead and then two shots behind today, did that hit the nail on the head?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I don't make it easy. I used to make it easy back in my early 20s when I was winning these things by eight shots.

No, it's just it's hard. It's hard to win golf tournaments, especially around here. You've had maybe a couple of runaway winners over the years, but it always seems to be a very tight finish at this golf course. I think it's the nature of the golf course, it's the nature of what's at stake.

I walked into the dining in the locker room yesterday, and I sat with Shane and Tyrrell, and they were both saying, geez, like when we finished, we were like one or two behind, and then all of a sudden we're seven behind. I said, boys, there's a long way to go. There's a lot of -- a lot can happen in a golf tournament over 36 holes or even 18 holes.

I certainly didn't think I was home and dry after Friday night, and I knew I still needed work to do. But I still thought I would need to shoot under-par to get the job done, but thankfully I did enough.

Q. Can you just grade the different parts of your game throughout the week?

RORY McILROY: I would say I felt like I didn't drive the ball great. I drove it better today. I would say I'd give it like a B-minus. I'd say for three days my irons were really good, Thursday, Friday, and today I felt like I hit some better iron shots. Yesterday was really poor. So I'd say I'd give that a B. Then my scrambling and my short game and my putting, that's what won me the tournament this week.

Even the chip on 17 wasn't that easy today. That was a really, really good chip shot. So, yeah, I'd give my short game and my putting an A-plus.

Q. Can you explain the situation hitting balls Saturday night and sort of what you were able to work out and how that might have helped you today?

RORY McILROY: My path was just getting a little bit too far to the right with every club in the bag. So I was just hitting too much of a draw. Then when the path is coming from that far inside, if you don't keep your body moving at all, the ball is just going to go dead left.

So I focused on hitting like quite a few cut shots, focused on really trying to open up my lower body through impact. When I do that, it helps me stabilize the club face and start the ball more on line with more of a neutral flight.

That was really the feel that I tried to get last night, and that was the feel I brought into today. Starting at the 1st hole, I hit some much better iron shots.

Q. It looked like on 13 that you're kind of intentionally hanging back from walking up to your ball too fast. Just want to know what was going on there, and just kind of generally what was going through your head on 13?

RORY McILROY: I don't know what had happened, but Cam was pulled in behind the hedges by a couple of referees to talk about something that may or may not have happened on the course. I don't know what it was about. I didn't ask him.

I thought, instead of me getting up there and waiting at my ball forever, I'd just hang back until Cam came back out. I don't really like that second shot anyway, so I don't need to be up there looking at it for too long. So I just tried to hang back -- you know, just so I could get to the ball and go through my normal routine and not be waiting up there for what I would feel like is forever.

Q. You were pretty open last year after you won about taking some time to really kind of soak it in before getting back to the grind. Is this going to be the same or different, do you think?

RORY McILROY: I think different. Different. Yeah, I said at the start of the weekend here I felt like the grand slam was the destination, and I realized it wasn't. I'm on this journey to -- I don't know, I just won my sixth major, and I feel like I'm in a really good spot with my game and my body.

I don't want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just -- I don't want to say a stop on the journey, but yeah, it's just a part of the journey. I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well.

Q. You've kind of avoided numbers goals throughout your life, but you have said you would like to be considered the greatest European of all time.

RORY McILROY: Today I tie Nick (Faldo), so there's obviously going to be that conversation, and that debate is going to be hard. But it's a cool conversation to be a part of. Again, it took me 10 years to win my fifth major, and then my sixth one's come pretty soon after it. I'm not putting a number on it, but I certainly don't want to stop here.

Q. You were behind Cam. You were behind Justin. You had Scottie breathing down your neck. At what point did this feel unlikely to happen to be a success story for you today?

RORY McILROY: I don't know if it ever felt that way. I think, if I hadn't birdied the 7th and 8th holes, that I would have started to have to push a little bit. But I think the birdies on 7 and 8, Justin bogeying 11 and 12, I feel like -- and then me birdieing 12, I never felt like I was out of it. I never felt like I had to press at all.

I knew that there was some important shots coming up, but I really just felt, okay, if I just don't make any bogeys, if I just sort of limit the mistakes over these next few holes, knowing with how the back nine of the Masters goes and people are inevitably going to make a couple of mistakes here and there, I felt like if I was the one not to make the mistake, then I would be in a good spot.

Q. You didn't look all that stressed or flustered yourself. What was the moment of greatest stress, do you think, during the day, and how did you get through that moment?

RORY McILROY: I'd say walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was. I think that was the moment of greatest stress. It could go anywhere. It could be anywhere.

There was a few others. I thought my second putt on 11 was huge to avoid making bogey there. That green, I felt, was a lot slower than the rest of the greens this week just because it was new and definitely different characteristics in terms of the -- yeah, the slopes of that green are so different than what it used to be. Cam and I both left our putts short there, but I held a really good second putt, which was a big point in the day, I felt.

Q. You kind of essentially seized the lead in the tournament on Amen Corner. Just wondering what your mentality was going to that daunting three-hole stretch and if that mentality was different than you had in years past?

RORY McILROY: Historically, I think I've played the 12th hole pretty well. I hit a good shot in there last year. I made a 3 -- I just stood up and made a really good swing and made a -- it's not a hole that you're trying to birdie. It was a bonus that I did birdie it.

Even going back to last year, I had that three- or four-shot cushion going to the 13th tee, and I started to be a little defensive. I hit 3-wood off the tee, tried to play it as a three-shotter. That came back to bite me a little bit.

So today I stayed aggressive. Even though I hit three really poor tee shots on 13 the first three days, I just stayed aggressive, and finally I made a good swing and hit a good tee shot and left myself an 8-iron in, which it could have been a more routine birdie if I had a better second shot, but I was able to put it down there to within 8 feet and hole that putt.

I think staying aggressive and staying committed, especially on those two holes, definitely served me this week.