‘What are we going to talk about next year?’: Why Rory McIlroy’s Masters mania will be hard to beat

Rory McIlroy began his champion’s press conference at the Masters not with an answer, but with a question.

Addressing the hundreds of sportswriters who’ve been covering his professional career over the last 17 years, he extended his arms in his new green jacket and asked: “What are we going to talk about next year?”

For so many years, the prevailing narrative ahead of many Masters tournaments has been that this could be Rory’s year.

This week, because he had made his best-ever start to a PGA Tour season, it felt as though this could really be McIlroy’s year.

But every time anybody else thought it would be his time, that only ratcheted up the pressure on a man who has famously battled his own demons.

“You’ve had Jack (Nicklaus), Gary (Player), Tom (Watson), Tiger (Woods), you name it, all come through here and say that I’ll win The Masters one day,” he said.