AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Rolodex of heartbreak is lengthy, the images seared into memory—a time-lapse of horrors.

From the cabins at Augusta National’s 10th, hands on his hips. From the scoring area of Pinehurst, hunched over a table, his cap slightly wayward, with regret in his eyes. Disappointment at the Old Course at St Andrews and Los Angeles Country Club, and most of all, most often, at Augusta National.

Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory a year ago did its part to subdue those major heartbreaks, a glistening dream amid a wreckage of battle wounds. That win was supposed to erase it all. The thing is, you never fully heal, and that’s for the better. A rolling history of who you were and what got you here is enlightening, if you let it be. A blown six-stroke lead after 36 holes threatened to tear those wounds open, but if you’re going to lose a six-stroke lead, better to do it Saturday, with time to spare.

There are new memories now, more vibrant than the disappointments. From his knees on the 18th green, screaming to the heavens with relief that his decade-long nightmare was over. From the back of the 18th green, his arms in the air, belting joyful roars and wilting into his parents’ arms.

McIlroy spent 10 years trying to win another major and 14 years trying to avenge his misery at the Masters. It took all of 12 months to do it again as McIlroy overcame a poor start, took control of the tournament at Amen Corner and never relented—outlasting a hard-charging Scottie Scheffler to defend his Masters title in a win that was made possible by his first. The past informing the present. The shortfalls paving the way for the triumphs.

“I've waited so long to win the Masters, and all of a sudden I win two in a row,” said McIlroy, who joined Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only men to win back-to-back.

The silence hung in the warming Georgia sun, beating down on two men who would spend the next five hours battling much more. The range, or the tournament practice area, as Augusta National calls it, is an eerie scene in these moments. A year ago, it was where two boxers touched gloves: McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, neither of whom were particularly fond of the other.

Playing with DeChambeau was one of the hardest parts of the round, McIlroy would later say, given what happened less than a year earlier at Pinehurst. Every glance at him was a reminder of his heartbreak. The two stood not far away, DeChambeau setting up right where McIlroy would be forced to look at him — the tension easy to see. The pairing became personal, and when McIlroy dispensed with his challenger by the 10th hole, he let up and let everyone else back into it.

The uncomfortable vacuum of noise was present again for McIlroy and Cameron Young, but the two operated in different worlds. They were tied, yes, but battling themselves—Young attempting to keep his nerves in check and McIlroy attempting to keep his golf ball on this planet.

A year ago, McIlroy played with a perfect swing and an imperfect mind. Mental mistakes kept it close, with his natural talent swooping in to save him. His swing was the issue this time around as he desperately tried to keep it as calm as his nerves—a battle he lost on Saturday when he shot 73 while the rest of the field set a collective scoring record for a third round at Augusta National.

McIlroy spent the night at the range, hitting cut shots on repeat to get his swing back to neutral. For once at the Masters, it was only about his golf. It was a challenge, but a welcome one.

“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 realized it's just really difficult to win the Masters,” said McIlroy. “I tried to convince myself it was both.”

Applause rang out as Shane Lowry holed his birdie putt at the par-5 second, but patrons’ minds were elsewhere, their eyes soon catching up to their hearts. The onlookers—maybe 1,000 or so—gazed beyond Lowry to the small leaderboard short left of the green, holding their breath for the update to come. A year ago, from this same spot, it was the scene of the first of many collective gasps. The moment everyone realized this was going to be mental warfare for McIlroy as he doubled the first hole and suddenly stood tied with DeChambeau.

That anxiety hung over the gallery on Sunday, waiting to see how the story started this time around. The scoreboard workers first flashed Young and a red 11. He made par, but nobody moved. The next name was the one they were waiting for. The first hole has treated McIlroy particularly poorly over the years.

Behind the difficult par-4 11th, McIlroy has played no hole worse over the course of his career than the first.

Just as minds started to wonder what if, a red 11 flashed. Par. The crowd took a collective breath. The first landmine was successfully avoided.

But, of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Young poured in a birdie on top of McIlroy at the second, who couldn’t convert his putt despite seeing Young’s putt on the same line. Just like a year ago, McIlroy turned to the third down a shot.

The cracks in McIlroy’s swing began to show at the par-3 fourth as he overcooked a draw to the back-left pin location. That forced a delicate pitch over a bunker that he did well to get within 7 feet. McIlroy’s par putt slid a few feet past, and he missed the 3-foot comebacker for a debilitating double bogey. He dropped another at the par-3 sixth, unable to get up and down after airmailing his approach long of the green. The deficit was somehow still only two shots as Young’s own issues began to surface with a three-putt bogey at the par-3.

It was at this point in Masters of yesteryear that McIlroy ejected.

Armed with the knowledge of a year ago, he remained steadfast. His caddie, Harry Diamond, reiterated there was time left. If he could just get to the second nine even par for his round, the tournament was still in his hands.

McIlroy concurred.

He bombed a drive down the center of the seventh fairway, his best of the day and one notable given his history. McIlroy has called the seventh one of his most trying tee shots, yet when he needed it, he delivered a gem. McIlroy’s approach settled 7 feet past the hole, nearly the exact spot he hit his Houdini approach from the left trees on the seventh a year ago. Only this time, he didn’t leave the ensuing birdie putt short. McIlroy took advantage of the par-5 eighth with a birdie—he played the par 5s in 10-under this week—and nearly added another on the ninth.

That’s fine, mission accomplished.

As McIlroy tapped in for par on the 10th and took off for Amen Corner, the patrons’ eyes glanced up for a different reason. They heard the murmurs in front of them, and the leaderboard revealed what that meant. Justin Rose dropped shots at the 11th and 12th. The lead was now McIlroy’s alone.

McIlroy took his stance in the middle of the 11th fairway, then pulled back. The wind, heavily into McIlroy for much of the last few minutes, had abruptly stopped. So McIlroy did, too.

Diamond walked off the yardage again, threw up some grass and retreated just in time for the wind to kick back up and for McIlroy to fire his shot safely onto the green. At the 12th, the process repeated. Harkening back on advice he received from Tom Watson during a practice round in 2009, when the two-time Masters winner told McIlroy, then 20 years old, to always wait for what to hit until the wind is where you think it should be.

“(Watson) always waited until he felt where the wind should be and then just hit it. You know, just hit it as soon as you can,” McIlroy said.

So McIlroy did, and when the wind was where he expected it to be, he hit a perfect three-quarter 9-iron to seven feet and holed the putt for birdie and a two-shot lead.

It was a notable moment of progression for McIlroy, who cost himself a chance at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club because of this exact blunder. With 110 yards left to the par-5 14th, McIlroy missed the green and his ball was buried in thick grass lining a bunker. It had been an ideal yardage for a sand wedge. Until the wind picked up.

McIlroy knew it, but hit anyway. McIlroy made a bogey and lost by one shot.

The learnings continued as he turned to Amen Corner’s finale. McIlroy’s tournament unraveled a year ago at the 13th. Confident yet conservative, McIlroy chose to lay up with safety in mind. It became anything but when he dumped his wedge in Rae’s Creek and reignited a once-wrapped-up tournament. McIlroy hit a driver instead of a 3-wood in this final round, roping it successfully around the corner and safely clearing the creek. He hit a delicate putt from just off the green and rolled in the comebacker to push his lead to three.

“Even though I hit three really poor tee shots on 13 the first three days, I just stayed aggressive, and finally I made a good swing and hit a good tee shot and left myself an 8-iron in, which it could have been a more routine birdie if I had a better second shot, but I was able to put it down there to within 8 feet and hole that putt,” McIlroy said. “Staying aggressive and staying committed, especially on those two holes, definitely served me this week.”

McIlroy’s first Masters win didn’t make this one easier; it just made all the feelings more familiar. He stood on the 17th tee with many of the same thoughts he had 52 weeks prior. Four more good swings and the Masters was his.

It’s debatable how many of the four McIlroy hit last year, but he only managed one this go-around—his tee ball on the 17th. It wasn’t an insignificant shot. One of the stories that lingered in McIlroy’s first Masters was the tee shots that plagued him—the seventh, 14th and 17th in particular. All three run in the same direction, play uncomfortably straight, but have fairways that slope heavily left to right. McIlroy hit all three en route to victory.

“I felt like I was a lot more controlled over the last few holes,” said McIlroy, who got up and down for par on the penultimate hole after pulling his approach left. “Once I got that ball up and down from the back of 16, I just said to myself on 17 tee, I just need four more good swings. I made one,” he said, laughing. “But somehow I got it done.”

McIlroy’s cushion was two shots as he reached the 18th, a stark difference from the one-stroke lead he took into the 18th a year ago. He needed it. His drive flailed way right, lucky to have a stance and a swing among the pines. He drew his approach into the front greenside bunker, spun the sand shot safely onto the green and two-putted for a bogey and a one-stroke win.

“I used to make it easy back in my early 20s when I was winning these things by eight shots,” McIlroy said. “It's hard to win golf tournaments. Yeah, 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 think it's the nature of the golf course, it's the nature of what's at stake.”

Those stakes will remain. As goals are checked off, new ones appear. McIlroy has his eyes on being the best European of all time. He’s already in the conversation, tied with Nick Faldo at six majors, most of any European. McIlroy’s six majors best Brooks Koepka’s five and Scheffler’s four, briefly putting to rest any conversation about the best player of this era. There are grander goals if McIlroy wants to go there. Dreams of double digits and conversations only a few have dared to reach.

“I don't want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just,” McIlroy said, pausing to pick his words carefully. “I don't want to say a stop on the journey, but yeah, it's just a part of the journey.”

That’s the last learning. A year ago, McIlroy viewed his entire career through a single prism, lacking one final component: a green jacket. Once he won it, along with the career Grand Slam, he had an identity crisis. What would come next? The answer didn’t need to be defined. No destination had to be set. The journey would bring him where he wanted to.