Back on April 15, 2025, Rory McIlroy woke up in his Augusta rental home and probably smiled to himself. For right in front of him was his green jacket. And with that, he had a feeling of contentment that said, “I did it.” Yes, after an agonizingly long wait, the World No. 2 golfer had finally achieved the Career Grand Slam. And this was no ordinary achievement. After all, only five of the elite golfers had previously attained the honor. Notably, the Northern Irish star became the sixth one to do it. Once he achieved his dream, the entire crowd saw McIlroy sink to his knees with a smile on his face. But while the crowd thought it was a reaction to being able to get to the top, the golfer detailed that it was something else.  

In a recent interview with BBC Sports, McIlroy detailed the roller coaster ride that he went through before the night of his dream-come-true moment. Recalling the moment from April, McIlroy stated how his initial reaction was that of relief. A relief of finally being able to get through a very tough round. “It was relief first and then joy. When the putt dropped, it wasn’t necessarily the relief of winning the Masters. Finally, it was the relief of getting through that day. I think that was first and foremost because it was a stressful round,” McIlroy said. And well, there was more. 

As McIlroy tried to end his 11-year wait to win the career grand slam, Justin Rose stood firmly in his way. As the game went into the playoffs, stress built up significantly for McIlroy. Narrating the tantalizing wait the night before, McIlroy stated, “I guess that whole 20, you know, maybe 20 hours from when I finished on Saturday night to finishing the tournament on Sunday night. That was, I’m not going to say a tough 20 hours, but it was, you know, I had to go through a lot, and there were a lot of ebbs and flows and ups and downs.” Surely, the road was pretty tough for the Irishman. 

On Sunday, McIlroy had a moment of joy briefly when he established a two-shot advantage over Rose. Unfortunately, that soon fizzled out as McIlroy bogeyed at the 11th and made a double-bogey at the par five 13th while he found the water. Thus, when after all of this roller-coaster ride was finally over, tears of relief and several other bursts of emotion followed. And this was justified as he was trying to clinch the Green Jacket for a fairly long amount of time. 

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Rory McIlroy failed multiple times in his attempt to win the career grand slam

It is a known fact that Rory McIlroy was searching for the gold for 11 years. And during this time period, the Irishman had some pretty rough experiences. He had as many as 21 top-10 efforts in Majors without a victory. Notably, this continued from his 2014 PGA Championship win till the time he won the green jacket. 

The biggest moment came when the former World No. 1 golfer failed to capitalize on a four-shot lead at the 2011 Masters’ final day. And that was not the only chance he got. Back in 2018, McIlroy also had a golden opportunity wasted as he reached the final group alongside Patrick Reed and somehow messed it up badly. 

Thus, it was pretty much legit when McIlroy told BBC Sports, “So, but I think just first and foremost, especially after the close calls, you know, finishing, not finishing it off at St. Andrews, not finishing it off at LACC, not finishing it off in Pinehurst, finally being able to finish a major after those close calls over the last couple of years, that was the relief, but soon after came the joy.” Surely, as it turns out, despite failing for years, McIlroy had not given up on his dreams. And this made him finally get what he wanted and put him alongside a bunch of elites.