A couple of times in your life if you are lucky enough, you get to witness sporting history. Last Sunday night was one of those precious moments when Rory McIlroy finally got over the line and won the Masters to achieve golfing immortality. Thanks to his drama-filled heroics at Augusta he became the sixth person and the first European to win the Grand Slam of his sport and collect all four major titles. For an Irish lad from Holywood, County Down to do what he did is some achievement and I don't think I will ever see anything that will match it in my lifetime. What we all love about Rory is he wears his heart on his sleeve, he oozes rare emotion and what you see is what you get. There is no game face, there is no hiding from his demons and when things go right it is wonderful and when it is bad, it is bad. We all knew since he was a kid that he was a golf genius and destined for greatness but how far would he go. But now he can be mentioned forever in the same breath as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen. And then think of the great players who never did it like Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tom Watson, all giants of the game. I have been following McIlroy since he was a kid. I first saw him as a youngster in the County Louth Club in Baltray near where I live and could not get over how physically small he was. Since then the gym and physique has become an important part of the game and Rory has as much muscle as the rest of them to batter the ball from here to kingdom come. When he won first few majors like the Open, the USA Open, and the PGA we all thought it would only be another year or two before he cracked the greatest tournament of them all, the Masters at Augusta. But little did either he or the rest of the world think we would have to wait another 14 years after his meltdown in 2011 when he threw away a three shot lead on the back nine, before he reached golfing immortality. I watched the greatest night of Rory's life with a few Irish friends at a bar in Spain. Like every viewer across the globe who wanted to see him do it we collectively went through every raw emotion during the five hours willing him over the line. From his dreadful double bogey at the first to his wonder shots from the trees, his disastrous double bogey 7 at the par 5 13th when he blew a four shot lead. But he kept believing and coming back for more, never giving up as the field and the wonderful Justin Rose caught up with him. When he regained his one shot lead with a dazzling birdie on the 17th all he had to do was make par on the 18th. He hit a cracking drive and with a wedge in his hand all he had to do was hit the green. He pulled it into the bunker but hit another wonderful shot to leave him with a six foot putt to win the Masters and what does Rory do, missed it. The nerves were gone, I could hardly look and then it was a head to head play off with Rose down the par 4 18th hole again. I still believed, my friends still believed and Rory still believed. He hit another wonderful drive and the wedge of his life into four feet . This time he held the putt and history was made. What can we learn from Rory's heroics and his decade of golfing pain as he grappled against the golfing gods, himself, bad luck , and stupid mistakes to conquer Augusta. As he said himself afterwards in a message to his daughter Poppy and everyone else listening, never give up on your dreams, always keep trying, no matter how hard it gets keep going, work hard,keep following your dreams and do you know what some day, you will eventually make it happen. McIlroy made me a proud Irishman. He and his great golfing buddy Shane Lowry have represented this country both north and south with great honour and dignity. They have never let themselves down even after a bad day at the office. They are wonderful ambassadors for Ireland and we are blessed to have them. Lowry joked that McIllroy can retire now because he has nothing left to talk about or achieve. But Lowry himself is also destined to have a few more great days and don't bet against him winning a major title this season, to add to his British Open. Sunday night was one of those great days to be alive. Ireland winning the rugby World Cup is the only thing that can top Rory's golf slam - over to you lads. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.