Masters 2026: What Rory McIlroy learned from Phil Mickelson about winning at Augusta National

Rory McIlroy returns to Augusta National as something he, and the sport itself, spent years aching for him to become: the defending champion . The green jacket is his. The pursuit that defined and at times consumed him is over.

And the story of how he finally broke through, after all the near-misses and the weight of expectation, traces back in small part to Phil Mickelson. With the tournament three weeks out, the Masters hosted its pre-tournament virtual press conference with its reigning champion on Wednesday, and McIlroy obliged the ritual—touching on his Champions Dinner menu , fielding the expected questions, inhabiting the role that once felt so distant. But the most revealing moment came when he reflected on that final round, the one that nearly swallowed him whole: the double at 13, the bogey at 14, the sudden sense that history might once again slip through his fingers.

What he said about surviving that stretch, about what he found in himself when the tournament threatened to turn, offered a window into something that statistics cannot hold. “I think when I look back at the round, when I was aggressive and when I played aggressively, I was rewarded and I played well,” McIlroy said. “You know, when I made double at the first, I played pretty aggressively, hit driver to the front of the green and made birdie.

Aggressive with my 5-iron on 4 and made birdie. You know, was -- went at the pin on 9. Made birdie.