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Tommy Fleetwood joined Shane Lowry in paying tribute to the achievements of his friend and Ryder Cup team-mate Rory McIlroy: "I've said it a bunch of times, I think Rory is the best player of our generation. I don't think he's had to prove that for a while.

"For him to have finally got this one, a career Grand Slam, is unbelievably special.

"I think this time was always going to come, it's just Rory makes you feel like it's not going to at some point.

"Whatever he did today, Rory's place in golf [history] was secure, but this has just added another layer on top of that.

"I do believe he's the best of our generation and now he's one of the greatest of all time."

Ryder Cup team-mate Shane Lowry joked that his close friend Rory McIlroy told him that he could happily retire after completing the career Grand Slam.

He told the Golf Channel: "This means everything to him. This is all he thinks about, all he talks about. He always said to me he'd retire a happy man if he won the Green Jacket, so I told Erica [McIlroy's wife] he can retire now.

"He's had a long 10, 11 years, he's had a lot of hurdles to get over and it's a credit to him."

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Rory McIlroy agrees that finally fulfilling his dream of completing the career Grand Slam will "free him up" to achieve further success in the sport.

The Northern Ireland golfer became one of an elite group of only six players to win all four men's majors when he beat England's Justin Rose in a play-off to claim his first Masters title at Augusta.

"Getting the Masters, the career Grand Slam, the fifth major, getting all that out of the way. I think it will allow me to play with a lot more freedom," McIlroy told BBC Sport NI's Stephen Watson in Augusta.

"I really do think it's going to free me up. It's been a long time coming."

Read more here of what Rory McIlroy had to say about his final round at the Masters, his long wait to claim the Green Jacket and his hopes for The Open championship in his native Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush.

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Dan and Christopher you are in good company.

Dame Laura Davies, a four-time major winner, agrees with you both that now Rory McIlroy has got the Masters monkey off his back, so to speak, he will now be free to enjoy his golf.

"This is his redemption," Davies told Sky Sports. "Everyone has been criticising him for 11 years because he didn’t win another major. He has got five now.

“He might get five or six more after this because nothing will ever for Rory McIlroy be pressure like that again.

"He has won the Grand Slam, he will never feel pressure like he felt today and he came through and won.

“He tried to throw it away a couple of times but he didn’t. One of the greatest sporting moments I have ever witnessed.”

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Iain Carter
BBC golf correspondent on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

There are times when you can feel a bit dirty about golf, given all the money and the greed and everything that’s been going on in the game, but at its core there’s that integrity, sportsmanship and camaraderie and we saw all that.

We saw everything that was good about this game today, the drama it can generate, the brilliance of the shots.

Also the terrible shots that we saw that are reflective of the unique pressure that comes with golf.

That for me has just made that the ultimate golf tournament.

It was rather good, wasn't it Jar.

I mean, not great for the old blood pressure, but what a tournament?

BBC Sport's Iain Carter does not believe it will ever be beaten for sheer sporting theatre...

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Achieving sporting immortality is normally a good way of putting yourself into contention for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award.

And it's funny, Phil, that you mentioned Sir Andy Murray.

Plenty of you have drawn comparisons between Rory McIlroy's achievement and Murray’s first Wimbledon title in 2013.

The Scot’s triumph ended Britain's 77-year wait for a men’s champion by beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets.

Murray led a similarly tortured route to achieving his dream as McIlroy, losing out to Roger Federer in the final the year before and in the previous three major tournaments that managed to reach the final of.

But one win for Murray led to another and he followed up his first Wimbledon title with a second three years later.

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Renowned Northern Ireland-born actor James Nesbitt has been speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme:

"What is so utterly special and loveable and unique about Rory McIlroy is that he puts you through the wringer a bit.

"When it got to the play-off I was just praying. It was astonishing.

"Everyone was talking about Rory, and at home that was the only conversation on everyone's lips. Could he do it?

"It was tense because you feel like you are walking alongside him. It was just brilliant. I was overcome with joy and pride."

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We have brought you plenty of reaction from Rory McIlroy's golfing contemporaries, but who else has been heaping praise on the new Masters champion, outside of his sporting realm?

The Royal family, Northern Ireland's First Minister, oh and a certain star of Cold Feet...

There is no doubt Rory McIlroy earned his Masters title the hard way, but what does he get for winning, apart from a Green Jacket of course...

• Actually he gets to keep the Green Jacket for one year, and then it stays at Augusta
• $4.2 million prize money
• Honorary membership of Augusta
• A replica of the trophy
• Masters gold medal
• A locker in the champions locker room
• A champions car parking space
• Access to the champions' private range
• Invitation to the champions' dinner and to pick his own menu next year
• Lifetime invitation to the Masters

Former European Tour player Simon Dyson on BBC 5 Live Breakfast: "He [Rory McIlroy] has been working so hard on his mindset and that showed this week. Friday was a big, big day for him and he passed that with flying colours.

"I have no doubt that he will win more this year. He looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from him - that was how I felt just watching. Everything's aligned so well for him.

"He is still only 34, he's 10 years younger than Justin Rose so he has got so much time. He's etched his name into history now as a legend of the game.

"He's also silenced a lot of people, which is great and I'm absolutely made up for him.

"I couldn't take my eyes off it, he put us through every emotion so he must've felt so drained afterwards, I can't imagine. It was one of the most exciting majors I've seen in such a long time."

If Rory McIlroy kept himself to himself on the course, he was more than happy to talk after that weight of expectation had finally fallen from his shoulders.

He joked in his winner's news conference, asking journalists what they were going to talk about at the Masters next year, now he had won the Green Jacket to finally complete the career Grand Slam...

Not every member of the golfing fraternity expressed their delight at Rory McIlroy's achievement.

US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who played alongside McIlroy in the final pairing, said the world number two did not speak to him at all during the final round of the Masters.

When asked how McIlroy was feeling as he signed his scorecard for a 73, which forced him into a play-off with Justin Rose, DeChambeau said: "No idea. Didn't talk to me once all day."

He was asked again, and responded with: "He wouldn't talk to me."

DeChambeau then said he felt bad for McIlroy when he hit his approach to the 13th into the water.

"I wanted to cry for him," he said. "I mean, as a professional, you just know to hit it in the middle of the green, and I can't believe he went for it, or must have just flared it.

"But I've hit bad shots in my career, too, and it happens. When you're trying to win a major championship, especially out here, Sunday of Augusta, the Masters, you have to just do it and get the job done and do it right.

"There were times where it looked like he had full control and at times where it's like, what's going on? Kind of looked like one of my rounds, actually."

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John: The fact only five golfers had achieved the career slam before Rory is a measure of his achievement. Hogan, Sarazen, Nicklaus, Player and Woods are legends of the game, but many great golfers didn't make it: Jones, Palmer, Watson, Ballesteros and many others. Outstanding.

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The thing is Gary, we do look to the future, we just can't help ourselves.

And you know what, whisper it quietly, but this year's other three majors look tailor-made for Rory McIlroy.

We're only five weeks away from the next one - the US PGA Championship, which starts on 15 May, is at Quail Hollow, where McIlroy has won four times before.

After that it's the US Open, which takes place from 12-15 June at Oakmont in Texas.

Northern Ireland's finest has become something of a specialist in that championship, having finished inside the top 10 in each of the past six and runner-up in the past two.

Then the final major of 2025. The Open takes place at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland - McIlroy's home turf - from 17-20 July.

The new Masters champion set a course record on the Antrim coast links course when he was just 16 but missed the cut when it was last played there in 2019, having had a quadruple-bogey eight on the first hole.

Again, whisper it folks, but Rory has a score to settle...