How is Rory McIlroy doing after the Masters? Another Grand Slam champion had a similar battle

Rory McIlroy’s career-major Masters victory, and the ensuing malaise, became the defining storyline of the golf season.

The Northern Irishman defeated Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose and his own ghost to conquer Augusta and end a decade-long drought. But the joy of a career-defining victory ultimately turned sour as McIlroy searched for his next mountain. The excitement of the moment he had been waiting for his whole life was replaced by an existential question: What happens after you realize your dream?

“Listen, you dream about that last putt at the Masters, but you don’t think about what’s going to happen next,” McIlroy said at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont. “I think I’ve always been a player who has a hard time playing after big events, after winning any game. It’s always hard for me to show motivation for the next week because you’ve just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it, you want to enjoy the fact that you’ve achieved your goal. I think after chasing a goal for the better part of fifteen years, I think I had a little time to relax.

“I think it’s trying to create a little bit of amnesia, forgetting what happened six weeks ago,” McIlroy said that day. “Then it’s just trying to find the motivation to get back out there and work as hard as I did before. I worked really hard on my game from October of last year all the way to April of this year. It’s nice to see the fruits of my labor come to fruition and everything happening. But at the same time, you’ve got to enjoy it. You’ve got to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that, and I’m going to continue to do that.”

The existential question McIlroy faces after winning the Masters is one that countless elite athletes have been grappling with. When David Duval won the 2001 British Open, he was shocked to find that “it” he was chasing had evaporated on the plane home. Kevin Durant hoisted his first championship trophy with the Golden State Warriors, but he didn’t find his soul as fulfilling as he thought he would. Tom Brady always said the best champions are Next one.

McIlroy isn’t even the only major champion facing this dilemma in 2025. Scottie Scheffler delivered a lengthy essay at the British Open about working hard just for a moment of happiness and putting your worth in things that matter more than golf.

“That euphoric feeling only lasts a few minutes,” Scheffler said. “Winning the Byron Nelson Championship at home [in May] — I literally spent my whole life trying to play golf well enough to have a chance to win that tournament. You win, you celebrate, you hug my family, my sister is right there, it’s such an amazing moment. And then it’s like, okay, what are we having for dinner? life goes on. “

As Scheffler prepares to win her second major title of the year, 25-year-old Maja Stark is looking for purpose.

The rising Swedish star achieved a lifelong dream by winning the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open title at Erin Hills in May, beating Nelly Korda to win women’s golf’s top major prize. But after winning in Wisconsin, Stark missed five of the next seven promotions, including brief stops at the AIG Women’s Open and Evian. Two months after Erin Hills, whose best finish was a tie for 47th at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Stark was in high spirits at the end of her week in Texas and broke her putter.

This week at the International Crown, Stark admitted that victory at the U.S. Women’s Open has her looking for her next big goal.

“Honestly, it was a little bit of a struggle afterwards because it was something I’d been looking forward to and thinking about for a long time, and the U.S. Open was my favorite,” Stark said. “I took a lot of comfort after that, but it was probably too comfortable because I thought you had a five-year Tour card and I achieved what I wanted to achieve, which was win the U.S. Open.

“So it was a little bit of a struggle for me and I felt like it took a few months to really come back and get that momentum back that I felt before in my career. So, yeah, it was really tough this summer.”

Stark has been working with a sports psychologist to reset after a goal she has worked her entire life to achieve.

“I think now is the time, really,” Stark said of overcoming discomfort. “It feels like you come down from — well, my highs weren’t very high, but you come down from people wanting to talk about it all the time and you have to keep thinking back to the week and feel like I’m not living that week anymore. I have to move on, and I think now that we’re doing that, we’ve set some new goals for the rest of the season and I just got the mental help that I needed.”

Lydia Ko will compete in her first career team event this week at the International Crown Tournament, and she knows the feeling. Last summer, she won a gold medal, climbed onto the podium at the Olympics in France, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. A few weeks later, Gao capped off a summer of a lifetime by winning the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews. What follows is what psychologists call post-achievement depression, or the search for something more.

For Ko, she found comfort in her Hall of Fame career that few can match. I can be satisfied with my achievements while still wanting to keep moving forward. There is no shame in wanting more.

“I think when I got into the Hall of Fame and did a lot of the things I wanted to do before it actually happened, I thought my life or my view of myself was going to change, and I’m sure Rory was thinking the same thing in a similar part, and everyone was thinking, oh, the Masters is what he missed. Like what if? And then he did it,” Ko said at the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. “Although I’m sure he was very happy and relieved, his performance the day before was as good as before he won.

“I think that’s what calmed me down. I think sometimes when it’s right in front of you and you see all those statistics, you feel like you should have done more. I took some of the things that we’ve been given for granted. I think that’s the biggest thing that I realized, and it made me realize that I still have to go out and practice and put in the time to play well next week.”

Ko, the U.S. Women’s Open champion, bared her soul next to Stark this week. Ko once again admitted that she’s aware of the struggle, while praising Stark for being open about her lifestyle habits and the mental struggles she faces. Both knew they were neither the first nor the last to reach the top of the mountain, nor the last to not find self-realization there. Human beings do not pursue a single goal. We are explorers and wanderers at heart. There’s always more to come.

For McIlroy, he found that at the British Open at Royal Portrush and won the Ryder Cup away at Bethpage Black. Ko climbed the mountain again last summer and is back competing for her first U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA titles to complete her own career Grand Slam.

As for Stark, she’s setting new goals and finding new mountains to climb. She’ll do it as a U.S. Women’s Open champion, and now she’s better prepared to handle the decline the next time she reaches the top.

For all of them, the search continues. It never really stops.

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