Monday 13 April 2015 11:42, UK
World No 1 Rory McIlroy predicts he will have plenty more battles with new Masters champion Jordan Spieth for future major titles.
McIlroy finished the 2015 tournament strongly on Sunday, with his closing round of 66 enough to lift him into fourth place, albeit six strokes behind Spieth, who led from start to finish and moved up to second in the world rankings.
Having already set new 36 and 54-hole scoring records, Spieth also equalled the 72-hole record of 18-under set by Tiger Woods in 1997 after a bogey on the 18th, finishing four shots clear of Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson.
Spieth's total of 28 birdies beat the previous best of 25 set by Mickelson in 2001, his last of the week on the 15th also making him the first player ever to reach 19 under par in the Masters.
And those are the kind of numbers McIlroy expects Spieth to continue to put up, as he said: "Jordan obviously started off fantastically well and has just kept his foot down. It's awfully impressive.
"I've been fortunate enough to be in a similar position, winning my first major, and having a nice comfortable walk up the 18th."
Turning his attention to his own game, McIlroy added: "I played well.
"Obviously very happy with how the weekend went, and even the last nine holes of Friday, which I needed to just get in for the weekend.
"I am obviously going to take a lot of positives from it. If someone had told me I'd finish 12 under at the start of the week, I would have taken it and sat back and seen where I finished. But a few guys have just played a bit better than that.
"I came in feeling good and I felt like I played okay on Thursday. I got it in in red numbers. Just the start on Friday (a front nine of 40) was really what killed me. But as you've seen over the last 45 holes, I'm playing very nicely. It's just a matter of putting it all together."
