PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Does Rory McIlroy think about winning the 2025 Masters every day?
“It’s just when I remember,” he said in a pre-tournament interview ahead of his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title defense.
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The Northern Irishman plans to take a trip down memory lane on Tuesday when he heads to CBS’ Jim Nantz’s house for a retrospective interview about winning his fifth major title and completing a career Grand Slam, his first in nearly 11 years.
One of the shots he will undoubtedly fascinate his friends with for the rest of his life is the par-5 15th at Augusta National in the final round, a 7-iron that hooked into the rope on his second shot around the trees and came to rest less than 10 feet from the hole, arguably the signature shot of the tournament. Asked if he gave one of the 14 clubs in his victory bag to Augusta National to commemorate the feat, as champions traditionally do, McIlroy said: “I didn’t know, but I flew back the next day, Monday, and I basically didn’t look at my golf clubs like I do after the playoffs, and I noticed that my 7-iron was gone. I thought that was a pretty important club.”
It turns out that McIlroy’s business manager, Sean O’Flaherty, has already sold him to Augusta National.
“He just didn’t say anything to me,” McIlroy said. “If there was anything I was going to give the club, it would probably be that.”
Rory McIlroy plays from the fairway of the 15th green during the third round of the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.
The next time McIlroy teed up at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, he put a new 7-iron in play.
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He was also asked which was more difficult: winning the Masters or winning the Ryder Cup on the road, which Team Europe accomplished at Bethpage Black in late September.
“I think they were different,” McIlroy said. “The Masters was to myself and the Ryder Cup was to 50,000 New Yorkers.”
As McIlroy makes his PGA Tour debut this week, it’s safe to say that moments reminiscent of McIlroy’s Masters moment are only just beginning for him to defend his title. McIlroy said that while achieving his childhood goals is great, he is also focused on the future.
“It’s over. It’s great. I’m glad it’s over in a way, but I want to move on and I have more goals and more things I want to accomplish and accomplish,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy’s Masters 7 iron: The surprising story of its fate
