You’d think after what Rory McIlroy went through to finally win a green jacket at The Masters this past April that he would be like Phil Mickelson, who once wore his green jacket at a drive-thru window, presumably on the way to something else. But McIlroy seems hesitant about putting it on.
“I always thought if I had one -- if I did win the Masters one day, I'd never have the thing off, and it hasn't been that way. I haven't worn it as much as I thought I would,” McIlroy admitted ahead of this week's Tour Championship. “I have it hanging in my wardrobe in a place where I can see it every day."
He did take it with him when he went to visit his parents immediately after winning the tournament, but he’s only been back to Northern Ireland one other time since then, and that was for The Open Championship.
“I went to the golf writers (British Golf Writers) awards in Portrush, and I wore it that night, which was pretty cool,” he said.
He does have some trips planned to Augusta to play with family and friends between now and next April, and looks forward to that.
“I definitely have planned one trip that my dad is going to come on as well, and my dad wasn't there when I won, so I think that'll be a cool moment to be with him,” he said about the upcoming visit. “It'll probably be a little emotional.”
As McIlroy noted, the Augusta National property is a stunning place to spend a morning or afternoon.
“If you stop to actually look around and look at the plants and look at the trees and hear the birds, it's a beautiful place to spend your day and to spend your night and go down to the wine cellar and pick a bottle of wine. It's one of the coolest experiences you can have in golf,” he added.
Unfortunately, we will have to take his word for it.
That’s just one of many experiences he has to look forward to starting next spring.
“It'll be lovely to next time go there and go up to the champions' locker room and put on my green jacket and feel like I belong,” he said, and you could tell he meant it.
As far as travels with the green jacket, he reminded everyone that he still has seven or eight months to do that.
“I'll have a few more opportunities for people to see it and to -- maybe not try it on, but at least they can see it,” he explained.
However, of all the places the jacket has been, on the back of the chair the morning after The Masters was probably the best as far as McIlroy is concerned.
“I woke up at 7:00 a.m., slept for three hours, I woke up, and it's one of those moments where it's like, did that actually happen, and you wake up and you see the green jacket lying over a chair in the bedroom and you think, yeah, that did happen yesterday,” he concluded.
And for just that moment, Rory McIlroy seemed like a 10-year-old kid who just got a really cool gift from Santa.