Mason Howell was just ten when he met Rory McIlroy at the 2017 Tour Championship and held on to the golf ball his idol handed him. Nine years later, he brought it to Augusta, standing on the first tee beside McIlroy before swinging so hard his hat nearly flew off. What McIlroy said next made the nine-year wait worthwhile.

Howell turned towards the green jacket holder and said, “I was so nervous.” McIlroy’s response was simple: “Get used to it, because you will be every year.”

McIlroy, who played two U.S. Open rounds in 2010 with Tom Watson clearly understood the weight of what this week meant for Howell. After finishing his second-round 65, which included a chip-in birdie at 17 and six birdies in his final seven holes, he shook Howell’s hand and had a special message for him. 

“I hope to see you down the line.” He then told the media, “Hopefully, he saw that you don’t have to be perfect to shoot good scores. When I was 18 and started playing Tour events, I thought that pros just didn’t make mistakes.”

Howell absorbed every bit of it. Despite shooting 77 and 76, and missing the cut by five shots, he walked away with something lasting.

“That was such a special moment for me to play with my idol,” Howell said, describing the week as everything he had dreamed it would be.

He watched McIlroy birdie both par-5s on the back nine despite errant drives into the trees and called the chip-in at 17 one of the coolest things I’ve seen in sports. His admiration went beyond the golf itself.

“He just knows where to miss it around here. He’s playing so carefree,” Howell said.

This quality has become a running theme in Rory McIlroy’s 2026 Masters week.

Just before the tournament, when he ran into Carla Bernat Escuder, the reigning champion of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur from Spain, he told her that her winning putt at the 2025 ANWA had helped him read the break on his own winning putt at the 2025 Masters. He had watched her make a nearly identical putt live on television, noted it barely broke, and used that read when his moment arrived on the 18th green.

Escuder’s reaction said everything: “Now I can tell he’s a really good person more than a player.”

McIlroy entered this week carrying a green jacket, and 2 days later, he had a six-shot lead, the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history, and has been playing with a freedom he spent over a decade chasing at Augusta. He described it himself as “childlike joy and enthusiasm,” the same feeling he reconnected with when winning the 2025 Masters.

The 2011 lesson Rory McIlroy used

Rory McIlroy left the course on Friday with a score of 12-under, six shots ahead of the rest of the field. His advice to himself was simple: don’t sit on it. “Don’t protect it. Go out and play freely, keep swinging,” he added, referring to his 2011 U.S. Open success at Congressional, where he went from a six-shot lead to an eight-shot win.

And by Sunday, Rory McIlroy had followed through on that approach, closing with a final-round 71 (-1) to finish at 12-under and secure the 2026 Masters title at Augusta National.

The reference was on purpose. In 2011, McIlroy had a four-shot lead going into Sunday at Augusta and shot 80. He knew exactly what it meant to keep a lead and how much it would cost. He learned to do the opposite at Congressional, and the lesson stayed with him in 2026.

His scores throughout the week reflected this. He birdied three of the four par-5s on Friday, even though he missed every fairway off the tee on those holes. He laid up, hit perfect wedges, and made the shot. Although he didn’t perform well off the tee, his performance on the scorecard was impressive.

He also showed a way of thinking that affected the result. “I feel like I’m playing with the house’s money,” McIlroy told Sky Sports Golf. “When I miss fairways, it’s fine. When I miss greens, it’s fine.”