ATLANTA — Rory McIlroy didn’t leave Augusta National as the Masters champion without one last purchase from the gift shop.
He said there were 1,100 pin flags remaining in the Masters Shop.
“And we took all 1,100,” McIlroy said Tuesday ahead of the Tour Championship, the end of a PGA Tour season that has been his most memorable to date all because of one Sunday in April.
“It’s been a lot,” he said of the flags he has signed. “But I’ll never get sick of signing them. I’ve waited 17 years to sign that flag in the middle, and I will never complain about doing it.”
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Players sign flags all the time for fans, but the golf protocol is that only the Masters champion signs his name inside the outline of the U.S. that is part of golf’s most famous logo.
It has been just over four months since McIlroy delivered an exhilarating end to his 17-year pursuit of winning the green jacket, making birdie on the first playoff hole to beat Justin Rose and complete the career Grand Slam.
He hasn’t won since then, and at times he has talked about finding motivation. But being the Masters champion doesn’t get old. He already is planning some trips to Augusta National, a luxury afforded the champion, including one with his dad.
If anything surprised him, it was the one-year ownership of the Masters green jacket.
He hardly ever wears it.
McIlroy said he wore it all night until he went to bed at about 3:30 a.m., and then awoke and went through sensations so many others have. He saw the jacket draped over a chair, a reminder that it all wasn’t a dream.
He wore it during a brief appearance at the Association of Golf Writers’ dinner during the British Open. Otherwise, the occasions have been rare.
“I’m reluctant to wear it,” he said. “It’s not as if I wear it a lot. I have it hanging in my wardrobe in a place where I can see it every day. I always thought if I had one — if I did win the Masters one day — I’d never have the thing off, and it hasn’t been that way. I haven’t worn it as much as I thought I would.”
McIlroy said he has trips planned with friends and some Augusta National members with whom he has become friends over the years. He would be required to wear his green jacket at the club, which most likely won’t require anyone twisting his arm.
“I’ve always said some of my favorite times at Augusta were when it wasn’t the Masters Tournament,” he said, referring to the times he went there before the Masters for practice rounds. “But it’ll be lovely to next time go there and go up to the champions locker room and put on my green jacket and feel like I belong.”