Rory McIlroy breaks rank with unusual start to Masters press conference

turned his champion press conference on its head immediately after sitting down. Shortly after stepping off the course following , the Northern Ireland star in his new green jacket stepped into the Augusta media centre to address the press.

McIlroy is no stranger to this scenario. He has been quizzed over failures on countless occasions but also on days of his biggest triumphs, he walked into similar rooms happy to answer any questions.

This time, however, McIlroy did not want to take any musings from the assembled media and instead posed his own question. After entering the room, McIlroy said: "I would like to start this press conference with a question myself: What are we all going to talk about next year?"

The room erupted into laughter as McIlroy made light of the questions and fingers pointed towards himself ever since he won the other three Majors over 10 years ago.

The decade-long elephant in the room had been addressed as McIlroy was keen to break rank and put the shoe on the other foot.

McIlroy's wait for a Masters win and the of a career Grand Slam, the 35-year-old admitted, after he finally added the Masters to his collection of Champion wins, and Open Championship.

"It's tough," McIlroy admitted moments after posing his own question. "You've had Jack [Nicklaus], Gary [Player], Tom [Watson], , you name it, come through here, and all say that I'll win the Masters one day. That's a hard load to carry. It is. It really is.

"These are idols of mine, and look, it's very flattering that they all come up here and they believe in me, and they believe in my abilities to be able to win this tournament and achieve the Grand Slam and all that, but it doesn't help, you know? I wish they didn't say it.

"It was all relief. There wasn't much joy in that reaction. It was all relief. And then the joy came pretty soon after that. I've been coming here 17 years, and it was a decade-plus of emotion that came out of me there."

As McIlroy put it, next year he will be free of such demons surrounding his participation at Augusta. The five-time Major winner can turn up in Georgia without a world of pressure on his shoulders and simply play golf. McIlroy described his championship-winning moment as relief and many will understand why.