Rory McIlroy has revealed that winning the Masters this week would make the ‘eight-year-old Rory proud’ as he would have achieved the childhood dream of winning every major. Success at Augusta has escaped the Northern Irishman so far in his career, but he heads into this year’s competition as one of the favourites.

If McIlroy is to finally get his hands on the green jacket then he will become the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam, a feat he has had his heart set on achieving since he was a young child.

McIlroy has finished in the top 10 on seven occasions in his previous 16 Masters appearances, finishing second to Scottie Scheffler in 2022, who heads into this year’s competition as the reigning victor.

Asked about what achieving the Grand Slam would mean to him, McIlroy opened up on how there is footage of him discussing the remarkable feat as a child.

He explained to Sky Sports: “Only five other people have done it in golf. I go back to when I was eight years old, it’s recorded, it’s on video somewhere, someone said ‘Rory, what do you want to do when you’re older, if you’re a golfer?’ and I said ‘I want to be the best player in the world and I want to win all the majors.’

“I’ve done pretty much all of those things apart from this one. It’s also just trying to fulfil that boyhood dream that I’ve always had, trying to make that eight or nine-year-old Rory proud of what he’s been able to achieve and what he’s been able to get out of the game of golf.”

The 35-year-old heads to Augusta in flying form, arriving after winning two PGA Tour events in the same year beforehand for the first time in his career. He cruised to victory at Pebble Beach in February before digging deep to win The Players Championship.

Speaking about his preparation to BBC Sport, McIlroy said: “I played great at Pebble Beach. Had to do it the hard way at Sawgrass, coming back on the Monday and playing in tough conditions. “Those are great confidence builders, they are validations of the stuff I worked on at the end of last year and it shows me my game is on the right track.”