He will be 36 next month, and he thinks he plays better now than 10 years ago. It seems like he is right.

Rory McIlroy has played golf for 18 years, but he never won three times before May. Now, he feels very free when he plays. This is not because of the money he has won, but because he is playing without pressure.

He achieved victory in the Masters tournament and holds the title of champion.

Now he has a place for his things upstairs in the building at Augusta National. There will be a green jacket ready for him there for the rest of his life. He can also eat with the winners every year at the Masters dinner on Tuesday. This took him 11 years to do. He must feel so good!

When McIlroy won, he put his head down on the last green and breathed heavily. He felt relief. He said he felt happy soon after that, and you could see it on his face when Scottie Scheffler helped him put on the green jacket.

What will we all talk about next year? McIlroy said. He feels very free.

Would it be possible to schedule it for next month?

He has won all four big tennis tournaments now. He could win all four this year. The other big tournaments this year are good for him.

Next month, the PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow. McIlroy has won there four times.

Last summer, someone asked Rory McIlroy a fun question. If he was the best player, where would he want the last game to be? He quickly said Quail Hollow.

The U.S. Open is at Oakmont. It's a long golf course, good for players who hit the ball far. This course would be good for him. But last time he played there, he got a score of 77 in the first game. This game took two days because of rain. He did not play on Saturday or Sunday.

The British Open is back in Northern Ireland, where Rory McIlroy comes from. He wants to do better this time at Royal Portrush. Last time, he started badly and didn't play well enough to continue in the tournament.

He feels more free than stressed when he comes back.

That is still far away, but it shows how people are talking about McIlroy now. Before, they talked about what he didn't have, but now they talk about what else he can get.

Scheffler said on Tuesday that he doesn't know how it feels to be asked about winning all the big tournaments. But he understands a little how it feels when people say, 'You did this, but not that.' He said this can be hard for people sometimes.

Brad Faxon, a friend who helps McIlroy with his putting, said McIlroy can win many more big golf tournaments and could win 10 of them.

Famous golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus thought young Tiger Woods could win ten green jackets. This was as many as they won together. Woods won five.

In 2011, Rory McIlroy was about to win a big golf tournament. Another golfer said that Rory could be as good as a famous player named Jack Nicklaus.

Nicklaus holds the record for the most major golf championships with 18 wins. McIlroy and Brooks Koepka both have five major wins, which is ten fewer than Woods.

It's easy to get excited. This golf tournament is one of the best moments at this famous place. Think about when Woods won in 2019, 2001, and 1997, or when Nicklaus won in 1986 and 1975, or when Palmer won in 1960.

But this was difficult for McIlroy. He hadn't won a major golf tournament in 11 years, and although winning the Masters was his dream, he only had a real chance to win on the final nine holes of the course twice in his previous 16 attempts.

Other players like Greg Norman, Tom Weiskopf, David Duval, and Ken Venturi had more difficulties.

McIlroy said two years ago that he would have many difficult Sundays to win another big tournament. He would have had even more difficult Sundays to win the Masters, especially because it was very important.

McIlroy is now the sixth player to win all four major golf tournaments in his career. The other players are Woods, Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen. However, only four of them won the 'modern' Grand Slam, because this idea started in 1960.

Before, only one other player, Sarazen, won all four major tournaments at the Masters. He did this in 1935. But at that time, the tournament was called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, not the Masters. Players did not receive green jackets until 1949. The Masters Club dinner did not begin until 1952.

McIlroy is the only player to win the last game at the Masters. The Masters is a very special golf tournament because it is always played on the same course. People remember things very well from this place.

Think about how good this is: he is now with the best golfers, and some great golfers are not on this list.

Sam Snead won 82 times on the PGA Tour. This is a record. But he never won the U.S. Open. Phil Mickelson has won more than McIlroy. But Phil also hasn't won the U.S. Open.

Tom Watson won 39 PGA Tour events and eight big tournaments. Palmer is maybe the most important person in golf today. Neither of them won the PGA Championship.

McIlroy started to think if he would be one of the good players who didn't win the biggest prizes. Winning the Masters means he doesn't need to worry about that now. We will see how much more he can do.