Rory McIlroy is a repeat Masters champion. The next step might be the toughest of all

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The passing comment Fred Couples said to his caddie on the 12th hole of the opening round at the Masters was worth another listen when Rory McIlroy slipped both arms into the green jacket for the second year in a row. “Rory may never lose this thing again after last year,” Couples said. Not that McIlroy ever makes it easy, but there is cause to wonder how many times his name will be etched on the Masters trophy, how often he gets to create the menu for the Masters Club dinner. For now, his two green jackets are as many as Scottie Scheffler, who is seven years younger. The next step is three in a row, which has proven difficult for the three greats before him. None of them so much as finished in the top 10. Jack Nicklaus missed the cut in 1967 as the two-time defending champion. Nick Faldo was never closer than five shots after the opening round in 1991. Tiger Woods was going for three in a row in 2003 when he shot 76 in the first round and was 10 shots back. He had a 66 on Saturday to get within four and then closed with a 75. McIlroy is at a stage where he wants majors more than he needs them, particularly with the career Grand Slam out of the way. Faldo predicts he will get another slam. McIlroy needs another claret jug and a U.S. Open trophy for a second slam, and then do it a third time to catch Nicklaus and Woods. Simply going back-to-back in the Masters is no small feat considering it had been done only three times by an impressive list of golf greats. And while he could afford a bogey on the final hole — his drive on the 18th was so far right it was found closer to the 10th fairway — this Masters could have gone differently. Scheffler's birdie putt on the 17th defied gravity. Cameron Young had seven reasonable birdie chances on the back nine. He finished with nine pars. McIlroy became the first player since Trevor Immelman in 2008 to play even par on the weekend and win the Masters. He did his heavy lifting earlier, particularly that stunning finish of six birdies on the last seven holes Friday to set a Masters record with a six-shot lead through 36 holes. Of the six players who had led by at least five shots going into the weekend, all but one kept the lead going into Sunday. The exception was Nicklaus in 1975, who was overtaken by Tom Weiskopf. What followed was as thrilling a final round as Augusta National has seen. Nicklaus, Weiskopf and Johnny Miller were all on top of their games — this was 11 years before the world ranking launched — and all three were in the mix deep in the back nine until Nicklaus famously made that 40-foot birdie putt across the 16th green to tie Weiskopf and go on to win a record fifth green jacket. This had all the trappings of a repeat of that year, especially with three players — Young, Justin Rose and McIlroy — holding a two-shot lead at various points of the final round. It was McIlroy at the end by one shot over Scheffler, and yet it felt so inevitable. He effectively won this with two brilliant birdies around Amen Corner — the three-quarter 9-iron on the par-3 12th that drifted nervously right but had enough to hit the green and settle 7 feet away, and the 350-yard blast on the par-5 13th after hitting into the trees the previous three days. That set up an 8-iron to just over the green, leaving him two tough putts that gave him a three-shot lead. Inevitable is how it felt the last time the Masters had a repeat champion with Woods in 2002. But it was different then. Woods didn't tend to make mistakes when he had the lead on the back nine at a major, with one exception (his playoff win in the 2005 Masters). Perhaps that's why of the five Masters that Woods won, becoming only the third repeat champion gets the least amount of attention. The others were more spectacular because of the way he won or the circumstances around it. Woods had the watershed moment in 1997 when he won by 12. He became the only player to hold all four majors when he won in 2001. He holed the famous chip that made a U-turn and hung briefly on the lip in 2005 (and then bogeyed the next two holes and had to win in a playoff). And he came back from four back surgeries to win in 2019. That might be the case for McIlroy, too, depends on where he goes from here. Nothing will top last year at the Masters, a final day worthy of a Prime Video documentary. McIlroy was so joyous about finally being a Masters champion that he said at the start of the week, “I think for the past 17 years I just could not wait for the tournament to start, and this year I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started.” He was joking. He was ready. He was far more relaxed, and it showed. There will be more at stake for him next year at Augusta National with a chance to do something no one has done. Those opportunities don't along very often. \\\_ On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. More AP golf: