There were moments when we were sure he had it won, but he didn’t.
There were moments when we thought he had thrown it away for good, but he hadn’t.
There were moments we thought it was his daughter Poppy hitting the golf ball out there, and we wanted to tear our hair out.
But with one of the wildest, weirdest, gutsiest and most roller-coaster final rounds in major championship history, Rory McIlroy has finally achieved the ultimate level of golf immortality. By winning his first Masters he has completed golf’s career Grand Slam and won all four major tournaments: the Masters, the Open Championship, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. He survived a tumultuous, heart-pounding stomach-churning final-round 73 for an 11-under-par total of 277, then birdied the first sudden-death playoff hole against hard-charging Justin Rose of England to take home his fifth major championship title and first green jacket.
McIlroy now joins one of the most elite groups in all of sports, now just six members strong. Besides Rory, only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, and Ben Hogan have ever won all four.
For some historical reference, look for a moment at a list of golf immortals who have NOT won the career Grand Slam. Sam Snead and Phil Mickelson never won the U.S. Open. Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros never won the PGA Championship. Immortals all, even they never accomplished what Rory achieved yesterday. Now with a total of five major victories, Rory moves out of a tie on the all-time list at four with such luminaries as Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris, Ray Floyd, Willie Anderson and Ernie Els to name a few, and into a tie at five with Brooks Koepka, Seve Ballesteros, Peter Thomson, Byron Nelson, John Henry Taylor and James Braid.
That’s heady company and quite a short list. It was a whopping 25 years ago – a generation has passed - since a 25-year-old Tiger Woods closed out the career Grand Slam at St. Andrews. That’s a long wait, not just for Rory, but for all golf to celebrate another generational player such as McIlroy.
But don’t believe all the hagiographic hero worship that’ll be heaped on McIlroy now that, 14 years after a most public humiliation at this same Augusta National, and after an 11-year drought in majors, he has finally won a Green Jacket and entered golf’s most rarified air. If Rory McIlroy’s final round at the 2025 Masters was a masterpiece, then I’m Vincent Van Gogh.
I’ve seen some zany finishes in majors in the two-plus decades I’ve covered golf – some tragedies, some comedies, and some tragi-comedies - but I’m still wrapping my head around exactly what to call that flabbergasting inward nine on Sunday. Flabbergasting – that does the bast job of approximating much of it. Time after time after time Rory appeared to have the tournament wrapped up only to inexplicably throw up on his own Foot Joys. And that was after he nearly shot himself out of the tournament in just the first two holes!
Only two shots clear of a bulletproof looking, Terminator-focused Bryson DeChambeau as the day began, Rory started 6-5, double bogey-par, a far cry from the previous day when he opened with six consecutive threes. All golf thought, “Here we go again. Another Rory flame-out in a major…and this time with the career Grand Slam in the balance”
But Rory did what all great champions do: He dug deep, and he rallied.
“I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I've ever had on the golf course,” McIlroy surmised, beaming proudly under his 38-length green jacket at the post-tournament presser. “In a funny way, I feel like the double bogey at the first sort of settled my nerves. And it's funny, walking to the second tee, the first thing that popped into my head was Jon Rahm a couple years ago making double and going on to win. So at least my mind was in the right place, and was at least thinking positively about it. But just a complete roller coaster of a day.”
And that was just the beginning. The day was rally after rally after rally...but that was only after gut punch after gut punch after gut punch!
As the front nine unfolded, DeChambeau – to everyone’s surprise – fell away, leaving Rory to build a four-shot lead over Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, Canada’s Corey Connors and Rose. After a gritty birdie on 10, some flirting with the water on 11, and avoiding a debacle at the 12th, the most treacherous short par 3 in the world, all Rory had to do was remember the most important Masters mantra: driest ball wins.
Four up with six to play? Even with Rae’s Creek, there was plenty of room to tack his way safely home to a comfortable victory and a chat with Jim Nantz in Butler Cabin.
Then, horrifyingly, inexplicably and mind-bogglingly, Rory flipped his ball in the Creek after laying up to the perfect spot. It looked like Poppy was golfing, not Daddy.
“I had 82 yards to the pin. It went into a little valley and it was on the upslope. And usually when I hit wedge shot off upslopes, they come out a little bit left on me, [so] I gave myself like a couple of yards of room to the right. I wasn't aiming at the creek, but it came out, you know, a little weak and a little right, and to make a double there, when it's a birdie chance, and then seeing what Rosey was doing, and also what Ludvig was doing at the time, as well,” he trailed off, knowingly.
“But at the same time, I knew I had 15 to play. The bogey didn't help on 14, either. But I still felt like -- I still felt after the tee shot on 15 that I was still in it,” he concluded.
Suddenly, in the scope of 10 minutes, Rory went from sure lock to finding himself in a dogfight, and with young Swedish wunderkind - “Iceberg” as broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch dubbed him - and the 2013 U.S. Open champion and gold medalist form the 2020 Olympics Rose. The only explanation is that the crucible of the Masters is far, FAR worse than any other sporting event imaginable.
Aberg faltered, as young ones do in their first few times in contention in major championships (“this Iceberg melted” jibed Nantz, throwing ice water on Baker-Finch’s earlier call), but Rose hung tough and dramatically birdied 18 to post 11 under.
Then came the worst putting finish by a winner since Retief Goosen at the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, when he, Mark Brooks, and Stewart Cink all decided to play hockey instead of golf on the 72nd green. Only this time, it looked like Rory was going to leave a green jacket lying on the ground.
McIlroy shocked everyone, worst of all himself by missing three short-ish putts at 15, 16 and 18 – the same bugaboo that scuttled him at The Country Club in 2023, St. Andrews in 2022 and Pinehurst No. 2 last year.
It all added up to six birdies, three bogeys and two double bogeys. He played the par-5s in 1 over par on Sunday, far from the eagles he carded earlier in the week at 15. No, the final round wasn’t a masterpiece. It was a fingerpainting.
He was saved in the end by his iron play. That’s how Rory won this Masters and how Bryson DeChambeau lost it.
“After scoring, Harry and I were walking to the golf cart to bring us back to the 18th tee, and he said to me, 'Well, Pal, we would have taken this on Monday morning.' I'm like, 'Yeah, absolutely we would have.' That was an easy reset. He basically said to me, look, you would have given your right arm to be in a playoff at the start of the week. So that sort of reframed it a little bit for me. Yeah, again, I just kept telling myself, just make the same swing you made in regulation. And I hit a great drive up there, and yeah, the rest is history.”
In the end, it was guts. It was getting up again and again and again after getting knocked down. Somehow, when Rory had to dig his deepest, he was even more relentless than both Rose and DeChambeau.
More than anyone else, Rory had to overcome himself. From tee to green all week, he far outstripped the field. Take away those four ludicrous, wasteful, and statistical outlier double bogeys, and no one was within eight shots of him. No it was the weight of 2011’s collapse on the back nine – the same four shot lead – the spectre of the last three close calls at St. Andrews, The Country Club, and Pinehurst, and the never- ending ringing in his ears of the press asking “When?” that was the last hurdle
Rory stared down a fate as grim as Mickelson at Winged Foot in ’06, Van de Velde at Carnoustie in ’99, DiVicenzo at Augusta in ’68, or Watson at Turnberry in ’09 – utter ignominy…but this time it was the Golf Gods who blinked. The same Golf Gods that laughed as Rory found fairway bunkers on holes 1, 2, and 8 by one measly yard, turning birdies and eagles into pars, bogeys, and doubles. Those same Golf Gods that were guffawing as his simple pitch at 13 trundled into Rae’s Creek. And those same Golf Gods that cursed his putter on 15, 16, and 18. With that one last gritty, iron shot into 18, Rory beat the Golf Gods and the monkey on his back to death with a gap wedge.
That’s why he deserved the green jacket.
That’s how he earned that green jacket.
That’s why maybe this was the best Masters ever.
Because if you are ever down in life, just YouTube this final round and watch exactly what happens when you never ever EVER give up no matter what.
“I think just having a little more self-reflection. You know, that experience, going through the hardships of tough losses and all that, and I would say to him, just stay the course. Just keep believing,” he exclaimed, holding bacj tears. “And I would say that to any young boy or girl that's listening to this. I've literally made my dreams come true today, and I would say to every boy and girl listening to this, believe in your dreams, and if you work hard enough and if you put the effort in, that you can achieve anything you want.”
