Now, the Mount Rushmore of golf has six faces carved in the rock, and Rory McIlroy should feel like he reached the top of golf.

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

Next month he will be 36, and he feels he is a stronger player now than ten years ago. It seems likely that this is true.

In his 18 years as a professional golfer, McIlroy has never won three times before May. He has never felt so free. He feels like he has nothing to lose, and this is not because of the $13.2 million he has already won this year in his six PGA Tour events.

He holds the title of Masters champion.

Now he has a place upstairs in the clubhouse at Augusta National where he will always have a green jacket of his size and a seat at the special dinner on Tuesday nights. He worked for 11 years to achieve this. He must feel amazing.

You could see how happy McIlroy was after he won, especially when Scottie Scheffler helped him put on the green jacket.

"What will we all talk about next year?" McIlroy asked, first in Butler Cabin and later at the start of his news conference. He feels free because of this.

Would it be convenient to schedule something for next month?

He has won all four major tournaments during his career. Now, people are thinking about whether he can win all four in one year. The remaining major tournaments this year seem like a good chance for him.

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

He was one of the players who answered a fun question last summer. The question was: if the best player in the FedEx Cup could choose where to have the final tournament, where would they choose? Without thinking, McIlroy chose Quail Hollow.

The U.S. Open is at Oakmont, a difficult course that is good for players who hit the ball hard. This should be good for him, but the last time he played there, he shot 77 in the first round. This round took two days because of rain, and he left before the weekend.

The British Open is back at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, where McIlroy wants to do better this time. Last time at Portrush, he felt so much pressure that his first shot went off the course, he got a score of 8, and didn't play well enough to continue in the tournament.

He feels more free than pressured when he returns.

That is still far in the future, but it shows how people's opinions about McIlroy have changed. They are now talking about what he can still achieve, not what he was missing.

Scheffler, who was with him at the ceremony, said on Tuesday: "I don't know what it's like to be asked about winning all the big tournaments, but I understand a little what it's like to be asked, 'You did this, but you didn't do that.' It can be very difficult for people sometimes."

Brad Faxon, a good friend who helps McIlroy with his putting, thinks nothing can stop McIlroy now. He believes McIlroy can win twice as many major tournaments. Faxon said, "He can win 10 in the future."

Famous golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus once said that young Tiger Woods had the skills to win 10 green jackets. This was the same number they had won together. Woods only won half that number.

Before winning his first major tournament in 2011, another player said about McIlroy, "If you want to talk about someone who could challenge Jack Nicklaus's record, he's the one."

Nicklaus holds the record in golf with 18 major wins. McIlroy currently has five, matching Brooks Koepka, and is ten wins behind Woods.

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

But this was hard for McIlroy, especially on Sunday, and for the last 16 years. He hadn't won a major tournament for 11 years, and even though winning the Masters was his big wish, in 16 tries before, McIlroy only had a real chance to win twice when he got to the last part of the game.

Players like Greg Norman, Tom Weiskopf, David Duval, and Ken Venturi had a lot more trouble because of bad past experiences.

McIlroy said he would have many difficult Sundays like that one if it meant winning another major tournament. He would have had even more difficult Sundays to win the green jacket at the Masters, especially because that win was so important.

McIlroy is now the sixth player to win all four major golf tournaments in his career, like Woods, Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen. However, only four of them really won the 'career slam' because winning all four wasn't seen as a special achievement until Arnold Palmer named it that in 1960.

Sarazen was the only other player to win all four major golf championships at the Masters tournament. He did this in 1935.

McIlroy is the only player to complete the final stage at the Masters. People remember things best at the Masters because it's the only major tournament always played on the same course. This shows how special it was.

To understand how big this achievement is, think about the famous players he is now with, and also the famous players who are not considered the best in golf history.

Sam Snead has won 82 PGA Tour events, which is a record he shares with someone else. However, he never won the U.S. Open. Phil Mickelson has won more tournaments than Rory McIlroy, but like Snead, he has also never won the U.S. Open, which is a very important tournament.

Tom Watson won 39 PGA Tour events and eight major championships. Many people think Palmer had the biggest effect on golf in recent times. However, neither of them won the PGA Championship tournament.

McIlroy started to wonder if he would only be remembered as someone who was almost great. Winning the Masters takes away that pressure. Now, the question is how much more he can do.