<p>Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after putting on No. 18 green during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 10, 2026.</p>
Rory McIlroy’s “keep swinging” mantra is the key to his six-shot halfway lead and Paul McGinley reckons the Holywood star has found his true identity at last.
McIlroy plays his best when he’s playing front foot golf and while he’s likely to make mistakes, his ability to reel off a string of birdies at any stage is what separates him from the rest.
Add to that the fact that he’s fallen in love with Augusta National and the Masters and it’s a match made in heaven.
“I think he's found a spiritual home here at Augusta National,” McGinley said in Golf Channel’s Live At show. “I think the members have embraced him. I think he's been welcomed up here to come and do all of the practice that he has done.
“I know he and his dad are very popular when they do come up here. He's been a wonderful champion. The chairman talked about him taking the green jacket and going on the road with it.
“He went to Ireland at the Irish Open on the Saturday, and everybody congregated in the tented village. We had sell-out crowds, 20,000, nearly the whole of Ireland was there in the tented village, and he walked out onto the stage in the green jacket and then took a selfie of himself with all the crowd in the background.
“He went to India. He went to Australia. He showcased the green jacket and the pride that he had in winning. So I think there's a spiritual home element there.”
As for his aggressive style of play, which he now knows how to temper when necessary, McGinley believes that’s the key to McIlroy’s golfing DNA.
“I think this spiritual home has inspired him,” McGinley said. “I think he's got he's embraced everything that goes along with being the Masters champion. He's enjoyed it. Emotionally, his heart is really engaged with this place and trying to win again.
“That's the first thing. When Rory's heart goes into a place, that's when magic generally happens. And then we talk about the complete player that he is at the moment.”
McIlroy spoke in his post-round press conference about overcoming his tendency to get defensive at Augusta, where he knows he has the talent to take on the course and be aggressive.
“My mindset hasn't been ‘keep swinging’,” McIlroy said of his past performances. “It's been guided, tentative. I think the experience I've accrued over the years and obviously with what happened last year, it makes it a bit easier out there to keep swinging.”
For McGinley, that’s the key.
“He now knows who Rory McIlroy, the golfer, is,” he said. “He's not measured like Scottie. He's not measured like Tiger. He's not measured like Jack Nicklaus because, as much as we — me included—would talk about him being patient and all of that, he knows that gung-ho, keep swinging, is his way.
“That's his DNA. And when he's doing that, he's at his best. And I think what we've seen over the last two days is a gung-ho attitude.
“And that’s what makes him so enthralling to watch and so brilliant and charismatic to watch, because he keeps swinging, he keeps going at it.
“There’s nothing surer that he will crash and burn a bit over the next few days. But the chances are he'll make more birdies than he will mistakes, and he'll end up probably winning for the position that he's in, and that's what makes him Rory McIlroy.
“He's different. He's not like the other guys. He's not like the other Grand Slam winners.
“He plays a different style of golf, and now, like he just said there, in his press conference, he recognises that, and he knows he can win that way. That's the most important thing.”