With six faces now on the Mount Rushmore of golf, Rory McIlroy should feel like he has reached the very top of the sport.

However, McIlroy's future holds considerable further potential.

He will be 36 next month and thinks he is a better player now than he was 10 years ago. There is not much proof that this is true.

In his 18 years on the tour, which is half of his professional golf career, McIlroy had never won three times before May. He feels very free now, playing without pressure. This feeling is not because of the $13.2 million he has already won this year in just six tournaments on the PGA Tour.

He has clinched the coveted title of Masters champion.

He now has a locker upstairs in the Augusta National clubhouse. A size 38 green jacket will be there for him for the rest of his life. He also has a guaranteed seat at the Masters Club dinner every Tuesday night. This took 11 years to achieve. It must be an amazing feeling.

The palpable relief was evident as McIlroy dropped his head on the 18th green following his victory. "The joy quickly followed," he commented, a sentiment confirmed by his expression as Scottie Scheffler assisted him in donning the green jacket.

"What will be the main topics of our discussions next year?" McIlroy asked, first in Butler Cabin and then at the start of his news conference, showing the great freedom he feels.

Would it be feasible to consider scheduling it for the following month?

Now that he has won the career Grand Slam, it is worth thinking about whether he could win all the Grand Slams in one year. The other major tournaments this year seem to be set up well for him.

The PGA Championship is scheduled for next month at Quail Hollow, a venue where McIlroy has previously secured victory on four occasions.

Last summer, during a hypothetical scenario posed to several players, the question arose: if the frontrunner in the FedEx Cup had the prerogative to select the venue for the Tour Championship, which location would they opt for? McIlroy promptly nominated Quail Hollow.

The U.S. Open is at Oakmont, a difficult course that is good for players who hit the ball far. This course should be good for him, but last time he played there, he scored 77 in the first round. This round took two days because of rain, and he did not play on the weekend.

The British Open makes its comeback to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, McIlroy's home territory, presenting him with an opportunity for redemption after his previous performance there.

He returns with a greater sense of freedom than constraint.

While those outcomes are distant, this illustrates the significant shift in the discourse surrounding McIlroy, moving from a focus on his deficiencies to exploring further accomplishments he might achieve.

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

Brad Faxon, a close friend and putting coach to McIlroy, expressed confidence that McIlroy was currently unstoppable and capable of significantly increasing his major wins, stating, "He can go on to win 10."

Famous golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus once said that a young Tiger Woods had the basic skills to win 10 green jackets, which is as many as they won together. Woods ended up winning half that many.

Before Rory McIlroy won his first major at the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional, when he still had one round to play, Padraig Harrington said about him, "If you're thinking about someone who could beat Jack Nicklaus's record, that's the person."

With 18 major victories, Nicklaus sets the benchmark in golf. McIlroy currently holds five, matching Brooks Koepka's tally, and trailing Woods by a deficit of ten.

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of this Masters. It's one of the great moments at Augusta National, like Woods' wins in 2019, 2001, and 1997, Nicklaus' wins in 1986 and 1975, and Arnold Palmer's win in 1960.

However, this was difficult for McIlroy, not just on Sunday but for the past sixteen years. It had been eleven years since he won a major tournament, and although winning the Masters was his dream, McIlroy only had a real chance of winning on the back nine twice in his sixteen previous attempts.

Players such as Greg Norman, Tom Weiskopf, David Duval, and Ken Venturi appeared significantly more affected, bearing greater emotional scars from their experiences.

McIlroy said two years ago after he almost won the U.S. Open that he would have many difficult Sundays like that to win another major tournament. He would have had even more difficult Sundays to win a green jacket, especially because there was so much to gain.

McIlroy is now the sixth player to win a career Grand Slam. He joins Woods, Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen. However, only four of them actually won the career slam as we know it today. The idea of a career slam wasn't really a thing until Arnold Palmer said it was in 1960.

The only other player to win all four major tournaments at the Masters was Sarazen in 1935. This was the second time the tournament was held, and it was not yet called the Masters. He officially won the Augusta National Invitation Tournament.

McIlroy is the only player to achieve the career Grand Slam at the Masters. This tournament is special because it has strong traditions and is the only major golf event always held at the same course. This shows how important his achievement was.

To understand how big this achievement is, you need to look at who he is now compared to, and also think about the famous golfers who are not considered among the very best.

Sam Snead holds a share of the PGA Tour record for most career wins with 82, a remarkable feat achieved despite never conquering the U.S. Open. Similarly, Phil Mickelson's distinguished career boasts a greater accumulation of achievements than McIlroy's, though it is notably incomplete due to his failure to secure the U.S. Open, the sole missing component of a career Grand Slam.

Tom Watson achieved 39 victories on the PGA Tour throughout his career, including eight major championships. Palmer is widely considered the most impactful figure in contemporary golf. Intriguingly, neither of these golf legends ever secured a PGA Championship title.

McIlroy started to think if he would be one of those who were almost great. Winning the Masters takes away that worry. Now, the question is how much more he can achieve.