Rory McIlroy has included one of his mother’s favourite dishes in his 2026 Champions Dinner menu ahead of the Masters next month. The Irishman will head to Augusta National at the beginning of April looking to defend the green jacket he won in dramatic fashion 12 months ago.

Having stormed to the top of the leaderboard heading into the final day of action, McIlroy needed a play-off against Justin Rose to decide the title. Thankfully for the County Down ace, he kept his cool in the decider and secured the win to complete the career Grand Slam at long last.

One of the perks of winning the Masters is the chance to host a Champions Dinner at the following year’s tournament, with the reigning champion picking the menu for the event. For his selection, McIlroy has called on some home comforts, including Irish champ and his mother’s bacon-wrapped dates.

But it comes a year after Scottie Scheffler risked the wrath of his fellow former champions at Augusta, having suggested he wasn’t going to change his menu at all. Scheffler’s first menu in 2023 was a huge hit, so much so when he won the Masters for a second time in 2024, the world No.1 contemplated rolling out the same food again.

An unwritten rule is that the menu changes every time, meaning Scheffler didn’t rinse and repeat, but his second offering wasn’t too far off the first. The American only made a couple of tweaks, while keeping it simple with crowd-pleasing appetisers and a simple choice of mains.

Following his own menu announcement, McIlroy revealed he had thought about the picks even before he secured a maiden Masters title last year. The five-time major winner remarked: “I think it would be pretty presumptuous to have a menu in your head before you actually win the tournament.

“But I always thought about, if I win the Masters one day, what would I want it to look like? What would I like to serve? I felt this time around, I wanted to do something that I would enjoy, but I wanted to do something that all other champions would enjoy, as well.”

While on some of his choices, he added: “My Mum does these really, really nice dates stuffed with goat cheese wrapped in bacon, so I put those on the appetisers list. So thanks to Rosie for that one.

“In the build-up to the Masters last year, I got this big shipment of elk and I was eating a lot of that, and I didn’t want elk to be the main course because I didn’t know if everyone would like that. I incorporated that into the appetisers so I’m doing grilled elk sliders, which I think is fun.”