The group of the most important golfers now has six members, and because of this, Rory McIlroy should feel like he reached the highest level in golf.

But McIlroy still has a lot to achieve in the future.

He will be 36 next month and thinks he plays better now than ten years ago. There is not much to show this is wrong.

In his 18 years as a professional golfer, McIlroy had never won three times before May. He had never felt so free. He felt like he had nothing to lose, and this feeling was not because of the large amount of money he had already won this year.

He has emerged victorious in the prestigious Masters tournament.

Now he has his own locker upstairs at Augusta National. There will always be a size 38 green jacket waiting for him there. He can also go to the Masters Club dinner on Tuesday nights for the rest of his life. He worked for 11 years to achieve this, so he must feel very happy.

McIlroy felt huge relief after winning, shown by his deep breaths on the 18th green. He said he felt happy very soon after, and you could see this happiness on his face when Scottie Scheffler helped him put on the green jacket.

“What will we all talk about next year?” McIlroy asked. He said this first in the Butler Cabin and later at the start of his press conference. This shows how free he feels.

Would next month be a suitable timeframe for us to convene?

He has won all four major tournaments in his career. Now, it's possible he could win all four in one year because the remaining tournaments this year seem good for him.

The PGA Championship will be held next month at Quail Hollow, a place where McIlroy has won four times.

He was one of the players who answered a fun question last summer. If the best player in the FedEx Cup could choose where to have the final tournament, where would it be? McIlroy quickly chose Quail Hollow.

The U.S. Open is at Oakmont, a long golf course good for strong players. This type of course should be good for him, although his last time there he scored 77 in the first round, which took two days because of rain, and he did not play on the weekend.

The British Open is back at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, McIlroy's home, and he wants to do better this time. Last time at Portrush, he felt a lot of pressure and hit his first shot outside the playing area, scored an 8 on that hole, and didn't continue in the competition.

He feels more free than pressured when he comes back.

That is far away in the future, but it shows how people's opinions about McIlroy have changed. They are not thinking about what he didn't have, but about what more he can get.

Scheffler, who was with him when he got the trophy, said on Tuesday: 'I don't know what it's like to be asked about winning all the main tournaments, but I have some idea what it's like to be asked, "You did this, but you haven't done that." This can be hard for people sometimes.'

Brad Faxon, a good friend who helps McIlroy with his putting, thinks McIlroy can win many more major golf tournaments. Faxon even said McIlroy "can go on to win 10".

Famous golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus believed that young Tiger Woods had the skill to win ten green jackets, which was the same number they won together. However, Woods only won five.

When McIlroy was about to win his first big golf tournament in 2011, Padraig Harrington said that McIlroy was the person who could try to break Jack Nicklaus's record.

Nicklaus holds the record in golf with 18 major wins. McIlroy now has five, the same number as Brooks Koepka, and ten fewer than Woods.

It's easy to get excited. This Masters is one of the best times at Augusta National, like when Woods won in 2019, 2001, and 1997, Nicklaus in 1986 and 1975, and Arnold Palmer in 1960.

But it wasn't easy for McIlroy, not on Sunday or in the 16 years before. He hadn't won a major tournament in 11 years, and while winning the Masters was his biggest wish, he only had a real chance to win on the last nine holes twice in his previous 16 attempts.

Players like Greg Norman, Tom Weiskopf, David Duval, and Ken Venturi had more difficult experiences that affected them more.

McIlroy said he would have many tough Sundays to win another big tournament. But he would have even more tough Sundays to win the Masters, especially because it was so important.

McIlroy is now the sixth player to win the career Grand Slam. The other players are Woods, Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen. But only four of them won the modern career slam. This is because the modern version was not officially recognized until Arnold Palmer said it was in 1960.

The only other player to win all four major championships at the Masters was Sarazen in 1935. At that time, the event was new and called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, not the Masters. Green jackets were not given until 1949, and the special Masters Club dinner started in 1952.

McIlroy is the only player to win the last part of the Masters tournament. This event is very special because it's the only major golf tournament that happens at the same place every year.

To understand how impressive this achievement is, think about the famous golfers he is now compared to, and also the great golfers who are not seen as the very best.

Sam Snead has the same record as another player on the PGA Tour, with 82 wins in his career, but he didn't win the U.S. Open. Phil Mickelson has won more tournaments than McIlroy, but he hasn't won the U.S. Open either.

Tom Watson won 39 PGA Tour competitions and eight major championships during his career. Palmer is probably the most important person in modern golf. But neither of them won the PGA Championship.

McIlroy started to wonder if he would just be someone who almost won big events. Winning the Masters took away that worry. Now, the question is how much more he can do.