ATLANTA — Rory McIlroy did not depart Augusta Nationwide because the Masters champion with out one final buy from the present store.
He stated there have been 1,100 pin flags remaining within the Masters Store.
“And we took all 1,100,” McIlroy stated Tuesday forward of the Tour Championship, the top of a PGA Tour season that has been his most memorable to this point all due to one Sunday in April.
“It has been quite a bit,” he stated of the flags he has signed. “However I will by no means get sick of signing them. I’ve waited 17 years to signal that flag within the center, and I’ll by no means complain about doing it.”
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Gamers signal flags on a regular basis for followers, however the golf protocol is that solely the Masters champion indicators his identify contained in the define of the U.S. that’s a part of golf’s most well-known emblem.
It has been simply over 4 months since McIlroy delivered an exhilarating finish to his 17-year pursuit of successful the inexperienced jacket, making birdie on the primary playoff gap to beat Justin Rose and full the profession Grand Slam.
He hasn’t received since then, and at occasions he has talked about discovering motivation. However being the Masters champion does not get outdated. He already is planning some journeys to Augusta Nationwide, a luxurious afforded the champion, together with one along with his dad.
If something stunned him, it was the one-year possession of the Masters inexperienced jacket.
He hardly wears it.
McIlroy stated he wore all of it evening till he went to mattress at about 3:30 a.m., after which awoke and went by sensations so many others have. He noticed the jacket draped over a chair, a reminder that all of it wasn’t a dream.
He wore it throughout a quick look on the Affiliation of Golf Writers’ dinner throughout the British Open. In any other case, the events have been uncommon.
“I am reluctant to put on it,” he stated. “It is not as if I put on it quite a bit. I’ve it hanging in my wardrobe in a spot the place I can see it every single day. I at all times thought if I had one — if I did win the Masters someday — I might by no means have the factor off, and it hasn’t been that approach. I have not worn it as a lot as I believed I’d.”
McIlroy stated he has journeys deliberate with associates and a few Augusta Nationwide members with whom he has turn into associates through the years. He can be required to put on his inexperienced jacket on the membership, which probably will not require anybody twisting his arm.
“I’ve at all times stated a few of my favourite occasions at Augusta have been when it wasn’t the Masters Event,” he stated, referring to the occasions he went there earlier than the Masters for apply rounds. “But it surely’ll be beautiful to subsequent time go there and go as much as the champions locker room and placed on my inexperienced jacket and really feel like I belong.”
