“It feels incredible, this is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder would it ever be my time. I think the last 10 years coming here and the burden of the grand slam on my shoulders, trying to achieve that. I’m starting to wonder what we are all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters.
“I’m just absolutely honoured and thrilled and so proud to call myself a Masters champion.
“When I hit the wedge shot into the creek on 13, I felt like I did a really good job of bouncing back from that. And the double bogey on the first. I was really nervous going out and it was almost like the double bogey calmed me down a bit and sorta got me into it in a funny way. I think all week, how I responded to setbacks ... that’s what I will take from this week. I couldn’t be more proud of myself from that, and being able to respond when I needed to.
“I had two yards less in the playoff than I did in regulation. It was a flatter lie as well. I had a three quarter gap wedge, it was going to land into the slope and come back. It was a good number and I had to make a good committed swing. I made one at the right time.
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“I think it was 14 years in the making, from going out with a four-shot lead in 2011, feeling like I could have got it done there. There was a lot of pent-up emotion on that 18th green. A moment like that makes all the years, and all the close calls worth it.
“I want to say hello to my mum and dad, they are back home in Northern Ireland.
Rory tears up and Jim Nantz says “they made a lot of sacrifices for you”
“They did and I can’t wait to see them next week. I can’t wait to celebrate this with them. Yeah.”
