Atlanta – Rory McIlroy did not buy the last-purchase Augusta National from the gift shop as the Masters Champion.
He said there are 1,100 needle flags in the master shop.
“We spent 1,100 people,” McIlroy said before Tuesday’s Tour Championship. The end of the PGA Tour is his most memorable yet, thanks to a Sunday in April.
“A lot,” he said of the flags he signed. “But I will never get tired of signing them. I’ve been waiting for 17 years to sign that flag in the middle, and I will never complain about doing it.”
Players have been signing autographs for fans, but the golf agreement is that only the Masters champion signs his name in the US outline, part of the golf’s most famous logo.
It’s been more than four months since McIlroy won an exciting finale for his 17-year pursuit to win the green jacket, which made the birdie on the playoff hole that first beat Justin Rose and finished a professional Grand Slam.
He hasn’t won since then, and sometimes he talks about finding motivation. But becoming a master champion did not age. He has planned a trip to Augusta National, which offers champions, including his father.
If he was surprised, it was one year ownership of Master Green Jacket.
He almost never walked through it.
McIlroy said he wore it all night until about 3:30 a.m. to go to bed and then woke up and experienced the feelings of many others. He saw the jacket draped on the chair, reminding us that nothing was a dream.
During the British Open he wore it in a brief appearance by the Golf Writers Dinner Association. Otherwise, occasions are rare.
“I don’t want to wear it,” he said. “It’s not that I wear a lot of clothes. I can see its wardrobe hanging in it every day. I always thought that if I won the Masters one day – if I won the Masters one day – I would never take off things, that’s not like that. I didn’t wear that.
McIlroy said he had planned his trips with friends and some Augusta national members over the years. He will be asked to wear a green jacket at the club, which will most likely not require anyone to twist his arms.
“I keep saying that some of my favorite times in Augusta aren’t when it comes to Masters,” he said. “But next time I go there, go to the championship dressing room, put on my green jacket and feel like I belong to me, it’s going to be cute.”
