Rory McIlroy wins Masters and is up there with Europe’s greatest golfers

The jacket was a perfect fit, a deeper green than you might imagine and in that moment came the realisation that he had actually done it. The burden had lifted, never again would we be able to ask the questions that had nagged him for more than a decade.

Now, aged 35, he is an all-time great. Indisputably. He sits alongside Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen – the only male golfers to have won all four of the tournaments that matter most.

The Grand Slam eluded some of golf’s greatest names; Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros, Sir Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson.

Now with five majors, McIlroy moves alongside Ballesteros and trails Faldo by one. Given that he is the first from the continent to complete the Slam the Northern Irishman might have eclipsed Faldo as golf’s greatest European.

It could be argued that way, given McIlroy’s 28 PGA Tour victories including two Players Championships. Outside his three Masters and three Open titles, Faldo won only three other events that count on the PGA Tour.

But it would be churlish to say either way, comparing eras is a fool’s errand. What can be said is that McIlroy is in the conversation for being Europe’s greatest golfer.

And now he has shed a family of gorillas from his back he will be unburdened for future majors. The next one is at Quail Hollow, where he has enjoyed so much success in PGA Tour events.

Then it’s the US Open, a championship he has narrowly missed winning in the past two years, before The Open at Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland. Opportunities abound in 2025.