Rory McIlroy determined not to waste season after Masters win

Rory McIlroy spent 10 days celebrating after defending his Masters title at Augusta last month but is now determined to lock in for the rest of the season

Rory McIlroy will play the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow this week. Pic: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Rory McIlroy said he feels more motivated after defending his Masters title than he did following his breakthrough victory at Augusta last year. 

McIlroy spent 10 days celebrating after his win at the Masters last month, when he became just the fourth player ever to win the tournament back-to-back. He will play the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow this week and then the PGA Championship, the second major of the year, at Aronimink next week. 

"I felt after last year, not that I got complacent, but I got a little like... this thing that you've wanted to do your whole life, you do it, and then it's like, what's next?" McIlroy, who turned 37 on Monday, told Travis and Jason Kelce on the New Heights podcast.

"I went through that lull. I think that all athletes go through where it's like, 'I've achieved everything I've wanted to achieve'. I just didn't want to fall back into that this year. So I give myself 10 days. I celebrated. I had a good time, but I've been practicing for the last 10 days.

"There's still a lot of golf left this season. I feel I'm in such a good spot that I don't want to waste a couple months of the season like I did last year.

"I don't think anything will top just the euphoria of it all last year. But I think this year was validation."

McIlroy hurt his back in the build-up to the Masters. He played the Players Championship at "75% capacity" before taking three weeks off to get his body right. 

"It gives me the opportunity to go up to Augusta, and prepare maybe more than anyone else in the field, which I actually got a little bit of shit for afterwards, which was weird," said McIlroy.

"I felt as prepared as I ever have going in there. Even though I hadn't had any tournament reps, my game felt good.

"I felt like I'd spent so much time up there. I was so comfortable. But there's always a little bit of trepidation when you haven't played for three weeks competitively and you haven't had a card in your hand."

This year's Masters win showed McIlroy there are routes to winning a tournament even when parts of his game are not operating well. 

"I didn't drive the ball particularly well, which is usually my strength," he said.

"My recovery play and my short game is what won me this. I think I proved to myself that I can win a lot of different ways. It doesn't always have to be about the, you know, long straight drives and overpowering a golf course. I can do it different ways."

McIlroy said he took some flak from people back home after he joked his pre-tournament Champions Dinner didn't have more of an Irish theme as “he wanted to enjoy it”.

"I'm not a big liquor guy at all," he said, "but I was thinking of doing like a certain cocktail with a Bushmills in it, just to try ta little bit of a nod back home.

"I might try to do something like that next year, just to appease all those people I pissed off."