Rory McIlroy has three more chances at an additional major this season, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t already thinking about next year’s Masters Champions Dinner. For the fourth time in golf history, a Masters winner will choose the menu for the most important dinner in the sport in successive years. And this is something the career McIlroy cares a lot about.
While chatting with Travis and Jason Kelce on the “New Heights” podcast this week, McIlroy analyzed how he thought the 2025 dinner went and already seems to have a few ideas for next March. Gotta start early. You can’t be embarrassing yourself in front of golf’s food critics.
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“I think everyone enjoyed the dinner. I tried to do enough dishes that would please everyone,” McIlroy said. “And I’m a big wine guy. I collect wine and I have done that for the last 10 years, so the wine selection was something that was pretty important to me.
“I went pretty fancy this year. It’s always on the Tuesday night, so I was thinking that I could just do a Taco Tuesday or something. We’ll see.”
Chris Turvey/Augusta National
Ian Gilley/Augusta National
Tacos would be a far cry from peach & ricotta flatbread and wagyu filet mignon, but we’re sure Rory McIlroy and his team won’t just be ordering in from a local Augusta spot. Everything will be special. And no matter what’s ordered, Adam Scott and Trevor Immelman will be in the best of moods.
“It’s a big, long table. Like a U-shape,” McIlroy recalled. “And at the bottom-left corner, you’ve got Trevor Immelman and Adam Scott. And they just look like they’re having the best time. They are just having the night of their lives. And I said to Adam and Trevor, ‘If I don’t win this year, just save me a seat down by you guys.’ Then Adam texted me after, ‘You gotta wait another year to sit with us.’”
Of course, McIlroy had to mention the Ireland comments that made some waves back home heading into the Masters. And still, not long after the explanation, McIlroy grimaced when Jason Kelce gave him a chance to redeem himself with an Irish theme in 2027.
“I had a few people from the homeland [upset with me],” McIlroy admitted. “I made a quip in a press conference where I said, ‘People have asked me why I didn’t do more of an Irish theme?’ And I said, ‘I want to enjoy the dinner as well.
“So I got a little sh*t from back home from that. They were coming at me pretty hard at the start of the week.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
