The Last Time Rory McIlroy Won A Major (Prior To The 2025 Masters)....

Ten years, eight months and four days - that's how long it took for Rory McIlroy to win his fifth Major Championship.

Number four came at Valhalla on August 10, 2014. Back then, after he'd just won the PGA Championship just a few weeks after lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool, he was the heir-apparent to Tiger Woods.

Who would have thought he'd go more than a decade without winning another one of the four most coveted trophies in the game?

The long wait is over, and following his incredible victory at The Masters, he can now call himself a Grand Slam champion.

Even though McIlroy now has that monkey off his back, we thought it would be interesting to look back at what was going on in the world the last time he tasted Major glory prior to the 2025 Masters, 3,900 days ago.

Who can remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? That was in 2014, the year we had the iPhone 6 and a teaser was released for the first-generation Apple Watch.

Yes, McIlroy's fourth Major Championship victory really was that long ago (numbers six, seven and eight won't take so long).

SPORT

In February, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos 43-8 at MetLife Stadium in Super Bowl XLVIII. Seahawks Linebacker Malcom Smith took home the MVP trophy.

Germany were the FIFA World Cup champions, having beaten Argentina in the final 1-0 in Brazil.

It wasn't a classic. In fact, one of the highlights (lowlights) of the tournament was when Uruguay striker Luis Suarez bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

In the Premier League, Manchester City were crowned champions for the second time in three years by beating West Ham United on the final day of a dramatic season.

In tennis, Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in an epic five-setter to win the Men's Singles at Wimbledon.

As for the winner of the French Open, that was of course Rafael Nadal (2014 was his ninth of 14).

In golf, Bubba Watson had won his second Masters title in April, and Martin Kaymer was the US Open champion courtesy of his victory at Pinehurst in June.

Michelle Wie was also a Major champion, her victory coming at the US Women's Open.

A week after McIlroy's victory at Valhalla, Inbee Park successfully defended her Women's PGA Championship title.

This was also a Ryder Cup year, and the European team were spearheaded by a 25-year-old McIlroy at Gleneagles in Scotland, where Paul McGinley's men ran out comfortable winners over Tom Watson's troops.

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Barack Obama was the President of the United States, while in the UK David Cameron was Prime Minister.

A referendum on Scottish independence from the UK took place in September 2014, a once-in-a-generation opportunity for people to have their say about the country's future.

Despite people thinking it could be a close call, in the end approximately 55% of people voted to stay.

MUSIC

In the world of music, big releases in 2014 included "Happy" (Pharrell Williams), "Dark Horse" (Katy Perry), "Story of My Life" (One Direction), "Shake It Off" (Taylor Swift), "All About That Bass" (Meghan Trainor), and "All of Me" (John Legend).

Our apologies for bringing this up, but "Gangnam Style" became the first video to reach two billion views on YouTube.

In May, Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest with Rise Like A Phoenix, performed by bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst.

At Glastonbury, Dolly Parton performed in the iconic Legends slot.

TELEVISION

At the 86th Academy Awards in March, Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club.

Other nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role included Christian Bale (American Hustle), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave).

Meanwhile, Transformers: Age Of Extinction was a huge box office success, grossing $1.104 billion worldwide.

True Detective and Fargo were two of the biggest television series to launch in 2014.