AUGUSTA, Ga. – As Rory McIlroy strode triumphantly from Butler Cabin, savoring the short stroll to the putting green at Augusta National Golf Club that only Masters champions truly understand, he met a peer.

Standing just off the paved path was Sir Nick Faldo, who opened his arms wide to greet the newest champion, minutes after McIlroy held on for dear life to claim his second consecutive green jacket.

It was brief but jovial embrace, and it brought together the only two Europeans to have ever won six major titles – and now the only two Europeans who know what it’s like to go back-to-back at the Masters.

In those portions of the record book, Faldo and McIlroy now stand as equals. But McIlroy’s successful title defense, one that tested every club in his bag and frayed every strand of his graying hair, puts the Ulsterman into his own section of the pantheon of greatest golfers to ever play the game.

Sitting at the dais in the press building a few minutes later, closing down the proceedings with a green jacket on his shoulders for the second year in a row, McIlroy opted not to draw a conclusion about how he and Faldo now rank on the all-time list.

“Today I tie Nick, so yeah, there’s obviously going to be that conversation, and that debate is going to be hard,” McIlroy said. “But it’s a cool conversation to be a part of.”

But it was Faldo who tipped his cap to McIlroy after a Masters triumph – not this one, but a year ago. With the career Grand Slam in hand, it was Faldo who declared McIlroy’s achievements worthy of the title of greatest European of all-time.

“It’s a whole different kettle of fish nowadays. He’s done way more than me. He’s won 29 times in America,” Faldo told The Times last April. “Of the all-time greats, I’d put him fifth.”

The names still ahead of McIlroy’s in the eyes of the Englishman are all heavy hitters: Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. But that’s the company that McIlroy now keeps, as he went from one exclusive list last year into another section of rarified air Sunday as he joined Faldo, Nicklaus and Woods as the only players to win back-to-back green jackets.

One of the key factors for McIlroy’s candidacy among the all-time greats is not just his trophy haul, but his longevity. Sunday’s one-shot win over Scottie Scheffler gives him a 15-year span between his first and sixth major championships. For so many of the game’s greats, the majors came within much shorter windows: Faldo won all six of his in a 10-year span, while Seve Ballesteros won all four of his within a decade. Arnold Palmer crammed seven major wins between 1958-64. Tom Watson’s eight-major tally all fell in an eight-year window from 1975-83. It was nine majors in eight years for Hogan from 1946-53.

McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open as a 22-year-old prodigy, hugging his father on the 72nd green at Congressional. This time around, both of his parents were on-site at Augusta National, but so too were his wife, Erica, and daughter, Poppy. McIlroy has spanned an entire generation between his major triumphs and has the indelible life markers to show for it. He now bears the perspective of middle age, of a man who has summited many mountains but has also experienced crippling defeat and lived to tell the tale.

Entering this week, McIlroy told reporters of a mistake he made in the wake of last year’s victory: that he fell victim to the notion that last year’s Grand Slam achievement was the destination. It helped him explain his inconsistent form in the wake of last April, and it was a wrong he was set to correct this time around.

As he leaves Augusta, once again with green jacket in hand for another year, the Ulsterman made it clear that major No. 6 is not the destination, either. This will instead be a moment that he hopes will propel him forward, with likely another decade or more of chances in the majors ahead as his 37th birthday approaches.

“It took me 10 years to win my fifth major, and then my sixth one’s come pretty soon after it,” McIlroy said. “I’m not putting a number on it, but I certainly don’t want to stop here.”

But players rarely know when their last major will be, well, their last. Yes, Nicklaus in 1986 seemed like a fitting send-off, and Woods’ return to glory here in 2019 felt similar. But Palmer won his last major at age 34. Watson was only 33, although he did have a memorable near-miss at age 59. Ballesteros was just 31 when he won his last.

But even if things end today, even if this two-step of unbelievable achievements on the sacred grounds of Augusta National prove to be McIlroy’s final moments of major triumph, his place in the record books is now secure. He’ll go down as the greatest European in the game’s illustrious history, and will forever stand out as one of the true greats to have ever picked up a golf club.

Six men know what it’s like to win the career Grand Slam. Four know what it’s like to go back-to-back at the Masters. Two Europeans have won six majors.

The connective tissue across all three groups is now Rory McIlroy. And for that, he now stands alone – and deservedly so.