Of course, we all know what happened to the young Northern Irishman on the back nine, during the 2011 Masters.
A collapse that was quickly passed over; for the moment. as South African Charl Schwartzel was about to birdie the last four holes to win the tournament in dramatic fashion.
Though McIrloy's collapse was briefly an after thought. He has had to live with those memories of his final nine for a year.
Answering the questions. Wondering what could have been.
Later in 2011, McIlroy showed his resilience and won his first major of his young career at the U.S. Open at Congressional. Exercising some of his Masters meltdown demons.
Now, to Augusta present day. And he says, he has moved passed 2011 and is ready to move forward.
"I learned a lot. said McIlroy on his performance in 2011.
"I think one of the things I learnt was that as a person and as a golfer, I wasn't ready to win the Masters; wasn't ready to win a major. I really needed to think about what I needed to do to improve mentally and in different aspects of my game to get better. I felt like I did that."
"So the big thing for me is it was a huge learning curve, learning experience, and, you know, I took a lot from it and was able to put some of the things I learned into practice very quickly, and that's what resulted in winning the U.S. Open a couple months after."
McIlroy was also asked about how often he has replayed the tee shot on No. 10 last year in his head. Also, what he thought he could have done differently there.
"To be honest, it was such a blur. It was really hard to remember. From the 10th through the 12th was just‑‑ oh, sorry, phone's going. (Cell phone ringing). 'No phones at Augusta'. (Laughter).
"So sorry. What was I saying?" (Laughter.)
"Yeah, everything went so quickly. It was more just the whole, it wasn't just the tee shot. It was way before that. It was just how I approached the whole day. I went through it a million times."
"Yeah, it's something that I learned from, and I quickly forgot about and moved on and moved on pretty well."
The 22-year old was also asked, about in terms of leaving the golf course, and taking those days of reflection. At what point were you able to laugh at yourself or someone else laugh at you?
"Yeah, it's a little bit different. Probably a couple weeks. I went straight to Malaysia the week after here and sort of tried to just get straight back on the horse and play. I had a couple weeks off after that at home where I sort of reflected and thought about it a lot."
"Yeah, probably sometime during that point when I got home when I realized that it wasn't the end of the world and that I would be back here this year and have another chance."
McIroy of course will have many more chances at Augusta National to try and redeem his collapse and have a shot at the green jacket.
Along with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Two of the favorites this week. McIlroy also comes into The Masters, with a victory already under his belt.
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