McIlroy would go on to achieve one of the greatest sporting achievements in Northern Irish history when he became only the sixth player in golfing history to complete the career Grand Slam by winning all four Majors.
The Holywood man won the other four – The Open Championship, the US Open and US PGA Championship – by the end of 2014 but the Masters eluded him until last month when he overcame Justin Rose in a Play-Off at Augusta National to don the famous Green Jacket.
Despite that, daughter Poppy was still the talk of the town after the event after she holed a monster 30-foot putt on the ninth hole of Wednesday’s Par-3 contest, the video of which went viral on social media.
And, speaking on an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, McIlroy added more to the story following Poppy’s tears when she holed the putt.
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“She got super overwhelmed. I don’t think she expected the loud cheer, so she started to cry a little bit and I picked her up,” explained the World No.2.
“When we got back to the clubhouse she wanted to see the video, so she looked at it and she studied it, and then she turned to me and said, ‘It’s okay daddy, I don’t think they caught me crying!’ That’s all she was worried about but it was an amazing moment.”
It has been a whirlwind few weeks for McIlroy, who has been inundated with messages from people from all walks of life after his incredible success at the Masters, which captivated audiences around the world.
Among his well-wishers were two presidents, as well as golfing legend Tiger Woods, but the 35-year-old has revealed which individual shocked him the most when he checked his phone.
“I was overwhelmed with the number of people who reached out but the one that got me was Sir Elton John. That was incredible,” grinned McIlroy.
“I haven’t been able to connect with him, so his assistant left me a voicemail saying Elton would like to congratulate you in person, the only problem is he doesn’t have a cell phone, so you might get a call from a landline in Windsor, England!
“I’d love to reach out to him. It’s Elton John, it’s amazing. I didn’t even know Elton John knew what golf was! Super humbled. The amount of people that reached out has been really cool.
“(Tiger) said welcome to the club, kid. There’s six people ever who have achieved the career Grand Slam and only four of us are living – Gary Player’s 90-years-old; Jack (Nicklaus) is 85, 86; and then Tiger and myself. Really cool to be a part of.”
Finally getting over the line at the Masters has been a long time coming for McIlroy, who famously threw away a four-shot lead going into the final round of the 2011 tournament when he was yet to win a Major, and the 14 years since have been dominated by talk of when he would finally win the Grand Slam.
Even at this year’s tournament, when he finally did it, it wasn’t without its jeopardy as McIlroy blew a three-shot lead on the back nine and then missed a short putt to win it on the 72nd hole, which left him going back down the 18th with Rose.
Rory McIlroy after winning the golf grand slam in Augusta, Georgia last month
“It took me a while but I got there in the end. Everyone comes up to me and says you don’t know what you put us through – imagine how I was feeling!” he laughed.
“I’d go back (to Augusta) every year, I’d put my positive hat on and go there with a good attitude but every time you’d leave on the Sunday night and it hadn’t happened, and you start to think is it ever going to be your time? Did I miss it, have I lost my opportunity?
“And I think there’s a good message in that of never giving up, be strong and resilient. That patience paid off.
“I approached that Sunday a little differently to 2011, when I had my first lead. I had a two-shot lead so I thought if I went out and shot four-under-par, I was probably going to win that tournament. It was a way for me to make everything else irrelevant.
“I wasn’t going to look at what my playing partner was doing, the leaderboard, I’m going to try and get into my own world. Even when I doubled the first, I knew I could still shoot four-under-par, so that was the whole mindset behind it.
“I felt like I lost the Masters in 2011 because I started to look around. I started to look at what the other guys on the course were doing, the leaderboard, I started to do math in my head saying if he did this, then I can do that.
“You can’t control what other people do. That’s golf. It’s not as if you’re on the football field and you can tackle someone, you can’t control what they do. They also can’t control what you do. If you give yourself an objective then that’s all you can do.”
Rory McIlroy will appear in Happy Gilmore 2
McIlroy’s next Major tilt will come at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in two weeks’ time, a course that he has won at three times in the past, but, in the meantime, he has turned his hand to a new venture – acting!
The five-time Major champion has a cameo role in the upcoming golf movie Happy Gilmore 2, starring Adam Sandler, and he explained more about the project as well.
“I’m a much better golfer than I am an actor!” laughed McIlroy.
“Happy Gilmore was the golf movie for me when I was growing up. I can recite every line. So the opportunity to do that was awesome and, as you know, Sandler is the best.
“Golfers play a lot of pro-ams on Wednesdays and you’re trying to coach the amateurs through. I felt like Happy Gilmore 2 for him was a pro-am. He was acting, directing, it was a full-time job for him.”