The Northern Irishman’s one-shot victory over world number one Scottie Scheffler took his career tally to six.

But having waited a decade between his fourth and fifth, which secured the career grand slam a year ago, the desire for more still drives the 36-year-old.

“It took me 10 years to win my fifth major, and then my sixth one’s come pretty soon after it,” he said.

“I’m not putting a number on it but I certainly don’t want to stop here.”

While this victory was not as emotional as a year ago, when he broke down in tears on the final green, it was no less special for McIlroy as he had his parents Rosie and Gerry here after they missed out 12 months ago.

For that reason, it had even more personal resonance.

“I caught myself on the golf course a couple of times thinking about them and I was like ‘No, not yet, not yet’,” he said.

“It’s really cool to have them here. They missed it last year and the first thing I wanted to do was fly home to see them because I obviously wouldn’t be sitting up here if it wasn’t for them.

“I had to sort of convince them to come this year because they thought the reason I won last year was because they weren’t here.

“When the ball trickled by and I marked it there from two inches or whatever (at the last) I just looked at the back of the green because I saw my mum and dad and Erica (his wife) and Poppy (his daughter) and I was just like ‘I can’t believe I’ve just done it again’.

“Not as emotional, but just, wow, it’s amazing. I can’t believe I did it again.”

“I said on the putting green that I’m glad we proved that wrong, so they can keep coming as long as they want. It’s amazing to have them here. I’m excited to celebrate with them tonight.”

McIlroy looked a certainty to win with a six-shot lead on Friday night but starting the day level with Cameron Young on 11 under having squandered that advantage there were more than a few moments when a victory looked in doubt.

There was a stage when he was two behind but he finally kicked into gear with back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth and when then-leader Justin Rose, who lost to him in a play-off a year ago, played Amen Corner in two over par, McIlroy seized the initiative with birdies as the 12th and 13th to move into the outright lead again.

Even with a two-stroke advantage he served up some drama on the 18th tee by carving his drive into the Georgia pines, where had already spent a lot of time this week.

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“I’d say walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was the moment of greatest stress (as) it could be anywhere,” he added.

“I don’t make it easy. I used to make it easy back in my early 20s when I was winning these things by eight shots.

“It’s hard to win golf tournaments, especially around here.

“You’ve had maybe a couple of runaway winners over the years but it always seems to be a very tight finish at this golf course.

“I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the grand slam, and then this year I realised it’s just really difficult to win the Masters.

“Just absolutely delighted to be able to get it done. Having a six-shot lead going into the weekend it would have been a bitter pill to swallow if I wasn’t able to get myself over the finish line.”