Rory McIlroy’s Masters win establishes another year with a repeat major champion

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 12: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after being awarded the Green Jacket during the Green Jacket Ceremony after winning the final round of the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 12, 2026 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Rory McIlroy won the Masters on Sunday. On some level it all is rather not surprising given the events of the last year and change. On another level it is completely shocking given that the golf world very recently wondered if he would ever secure a green jacket and he now has two.

Much has rightfully been made about how Rory is the first repeat winner at Augusta since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002. McIlroy is just the fourth ever to repeat at the tournament of all tournaments (Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo). It is a historic landmark to say the least.

Interestingly, this gives us another two-year run where a major champion is repeated across the landscape of men’s golf as Rory won a major in 2025 and now has taken home the first one in 2026. Obviously in this case they were the same tournament.

This unique run has happened a few times in recent history.

Scottie Scheffler from 2024 to 2025

To be perfectly clear we began 2026 with this particular happening taking place this past year.

Scottie Scheffler won the Masters for a second time himself in 2024 (2022), and in 2025 he famously won both the PGA Championship and Open Championship. I had a bit of a choice when it came to photos to use, didn’t I?

This marked the first time in a handful of years that a single player won a major in consecutive seasons.

Collin Morikawa from 2020 to 2021

Prior to Scottie last year the most recent instance of a player winning major titles in consecutive seasons was Collin Morikawa. It is impossible to forget how Morikawa stormed to victory during the PGA Championship at Harding Park in 2020, and a year later he himself took home the Claret Jug.

Brooks Koepka from 2017 through 2019

This is when things were particularly impressive.

Brooks Koepka not only won majors in consecutive seasons, but he won them in three straight. Koepka took home the U.S. Open in 2018, both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open in 2018, and then the PGA Championship once more in 2019 (he would go on to win the PGA again in 2023 obviously).

At the time of the 2019 PGA Championship win, Brooks was the defending champion twice over at both the PGA and U.S. Open. Obviously that would only last a little while before Gary Woodland won the U.S. Open in 2019 at Pebble Beach.

Rory McIlroy from 2011 to 2012

While there were a pair of years where players won multiple majors in the same year in the run-up to Brooks (Jordan Spieth in 2015 and Rory McIlroy in 2014), Brooks obviously did it himself in 2018 as noted, prior to the run just mentioned the two-year stretch where a player won a major in consecutive seasons was Rory once more. Quite the full circle here.

McIlroy’s first major championship came at the U.S. Open in 2011 and then he won the PGA Championship for the first time in 2012. He would win the event in again in 2014, after winning the Open Championship, and set up the drought that was broken last year which started this whole discussion and the Career Grand Slam opportunity that he finally met.

Who will be the next player to win majors in consecutive seasons? At the moment only Scottie Scheffler and J.J. Spaun (who won last year’s U.S. Open) are eligible to do it. Scottie can obviously win one for the third year in a row.

Rory will be again next year as well. Recent history shows it would be silly to bet against him.