From the moment the final putt dropped at the 2025 Masters amid scenes of raw, unfiltered joy and cascading emotion, a narrative has been built that the lifting of a burden would result in a Rory McIlroy being free to play relatively carefree golf, unfettered by heavy expectation, for the remainder of his career.
If that theme proves to be the case, where better for such a story arc to begin than at the very next major championship on the calendar, which is being staged this week at a venue where he won for the first time as a callow tousled-haired 20-year old in 2010 and for a fourth occasion just last May.
"I feel like I burdened myself with the career Grand Slam stuff and I want to enjoy this. I want to enjoy what I've achieved and enjoy the last decade or whatever of my career," he said at Wednesday's press conference at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"I've talked about becoming the best European ever or the best international player, whatever that is, but I don't want to burden myself with numbers or statistics. I just want to play the best golf I can."
While McIlroy’s compelling saga of triumph eventually succeeding over failure dominates the pre-championship narrative this week, there are no shortage of other storylines to contemplate which could make the next four days a potentially riveting major.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler, hung up the 'Business as usual’ sign with his eight stroke win in the Byron Nelson CJ Cup less than a fortnight ago and looks as sharp as he did in his nine-victory 2024 season.
Twice PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, who registered the first of those successes at this venue in 2017, is back in form, as he showed by winning for the first time since his PGA Championship triumph in 2022 when claiming the Heritage Classic last month while tying for second place last week in Philadelphia.
Xander Schauffele, who won this title last year and added the Open at Royal Troon last July, looks to be returning to his 2024 form with a run of encouraging recent results, having finally rid himself of the last remaining twinges of a lingering and very painful muscle injury in his rib cage.
There’s also the prospect of another name to be added to the list of career grand slam winners, with enough fresh shoots of form in the post wrist-surgery game of Jordan Spieth to give the 31-year old Texan a credible shot of quickly following McIlroy into the annals of golf history.
And then, of course, there is the most consistent majors performer over the past 13 months - the reigning US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau - who was second to Schauffele in Valhalla in this championship last year and held the outright lead at the Masters last month early on Sunday.
Not to be outdone in the contender stakes is 38-year-old Shane Lowry, who tied with Thomas last week at the Truist Championship, in which he held a share of lead on both Saturday and Sunday only to be denied when his birdie attempt to send it to a play-off, slipped by on the final green.
"Look, [last] Sunday hurt a bit. I felt like I could’ve won. I should’ve won," he said on the eve of the championship.
"Sometimes you feel like golf keeps kicking you but you have to be patient and you have to wait for the good days to come so hopefully one of those is not too far away."
Last year, at the USPGA at Valhalla in Kentucky, Lowry equalled the major championship single-round record with a 62 on Saturday and even had an outside chance of victory on the final day.
He has, however, rarely played well around Quail Hollow.
"I’ve no record around here at all but I’ve taken a little bit of a dive into why that is and it’s nothing to do with my tee-to-green play, it’s more to do with the rest of it, and I feel that part of my game is probably in better shape coming into this time of year. So I’m kind of looking at the positives and work from there."
Lowry’s runner-up finish last weekend also saw him move to second on the Ryder Cup points list and he entered the World’s top ten for the first time after a highly consistent run of form - albeit without a victory - over the last 12 months.
So storylines abound in a week which also sees three other Irish players, Seamus Power, Tom McKibbin and 2008 champion Padraig Harrington tee it up in an elite field which includes 99 of the world’s top 100 ranked players. (Billy Horschel withdrew due to upcoming hip surgery.)
A serious factor in determining the winner on Sunday could relate to the course set up and underfoot conditions.
There has been three inches of rain in Charlotte since last Sunday and there were many squelchy areas of the course, even the fairways, as players concluded their final preparations yesterday.
Quail Hollow is regarded as a ‘so-called’ bombers' paradise and soft conditions mostly play into their hands. No winner of the PGA Tour event staged at the venue in the last 18 years was outside the top 20 percentile in driving distance so it suits long ball strikers like McIlroy - hence the renewal of the narrative, just as it was pre-Augusta, of the stars aligning this week for the Masters champion.
It’s all fine to speculate about the freedom he might feel having had a huge burden lifted but McIlroy is on another goal-chase this week: equalling Nick Faldo’s European modern-day majors record of six victories.
It’s also worth noting that before the decade-long hiatus in winning majors, his third and fourth titles came back to back in 2014.
The odds of that history repeating itself look quite short but as pundits, former champions and others speculate about what may unfold for McIlroy in the near and distant future, he knows that he may have already ascended the top of the mountain.
"I'm still going to set myself goals, I'm still going to try to achieve certain things but I sit here knowing that [Masters success] could very well be the highlight of my career."
