Rory McIlroy expects to face numerous battles with Jordan Spieth for golf's greatest prizes after the American's record-breaking Masters victory on Sunday.
Having already set new 36 and 54-hole scoring records, Spieth also equalled the 72-hole record of 18-under set by Tiger Woods in 1997 after a bogey on the 18th, finishing four shots clear of Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson.
Spieth's total of 28 birdies beat the previous best of 25 set by Mickelson in 2001, his last of the week on the 15th also making him the first player ever to reach 19 under par in the Masters.
The 21-year-old is also the second youngest champion ever behind Woods and moves up to second in the world behind McIlroy after a run of results which reads first, second, second, first.
"Jordan has run away with it and fair play to him" - Rory McIlroy
Reflecting on his weekend at Augusta, McIlroy was left to rue a poor first nine in the second, but was full of praise for the new champion.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said: "I left myself with too much to do over the weekend, even to make the cut on Friday was a good achievement.
"I made the most of it with a couple of really good scores. When I look back at the tournament, I think the first nine on Friday is what killed me. If I played a more solid nine holes there, you never know what might have happened.
"Jordan has run away with it and fair play to him. He's played great all week and started off really, really well and just kept it going. I'm sure we'll have many battles to come in the Majors and many other tournaments."
The world number one, however, is happy with his game at present and is looking forward to making his mark in the months ahead.
"I'll take a lot of positives from the weekend," added McIlroy.
"I'm getting better and better from playing the course each and every year. I set a target of trying to play the par fives in 12 under - I played them better than that this week.
"If you had given me 12 under for the week coming in I would have taken it.
"First and foremost I'm playing well. It's not about next year's Masters as I've got a whole lot of golf to play this year. I'm really happy with where my game is and I feel I'm at a place where I can win a lot of golf of tournaments."
