It began as a collapse, evolved into a coronation, and finally changed into a dogfight.
Rory McIlroy’s pursuit of the career Grand Slam had been so obstinate that he had been pushed to the limit when it eventually materialized.
During one of the most tumultuous final rounds in Augusta National’s lengthy history, McIlroy joined a select few legends in winning all four contemporary major championships in the 89th Masters, his eleventh attempt to complete the Grand Slam with a Green Jacket.
It took more than a wild and woolly 18 holes to determine the result. Thanks to Justin Rose’s outstanding 66 and his own mistakes that derailed some amazing play that raised expectations and led to screams from the audience, “Roar-eee! Roar-eee! “Roar-eee!” McIlroy was called upon to continue playing golf.
The playoffs were brief and incredibly sweet for the winner and all those who supported him during the ten years he spent trying to find the elusive missing piece in his career.
McIlroy blasted a 125-yard gap wedge on the par-4 18th hole, which landed on a slope behind the pin and rolled back down to four feet. Earlier, he had bogeyed on the last hole of regulation to fall back into a tie at 11-under 277 with the fast-closing Englishman. A decade-long burden was finally lifted when McIlroy sank his putt and fell to the ground after Rose missed a 15-foot birdie attempt.
The emotions of having endured five hours of genius and mistakes and years of struggle were unleashed as if through a valve as McIlroy pounded his arms and fell to the ground in tears. Then, to unrelenting applause, many people, including his wife Erica and their daughter Poppy, were given hugs. McIlroy had found his winning ways again in his 39th major appearance since winning his fourth, the 2014 PGA Championship.
“Just a complete roller coaster of emotions today,” McIlroy said. “What came out of me on the last green there in the playoff was at least 11 years, if not 14 years, of pent-up emotion.”
McIlroy, 35, joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods as players who have won at least one Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship as a result of his hard-fought victory. Sarazen also finished the Slam in Augusta, although that was in 1935, when the Tournament was only getting started.
McIlroy’s lengthy quest to become the sixth player to win all of the most coveted men’s professional golf titles in a very different media landscape and culture meant that it was closely examined in a different manner than the others. The most famous thing about Hogan’s Slam-winning 1953 Open was that it gave him a “Triple Crown” several significant victories during that season. In their 20s, players Nicklaus and Woods completed their career slams before the pressure mounted.
Full sunlight, 70 degrees, and a moderate wind made Sunday the kind of spring day that anyone suffering through a harsh winter in McIlroy’s native northern Ireland would long for. Although it was a squiggly road to victory, McIlroy’s birdie on the first extra hole on this blue-sky 13th of April will always be remembered as the fulfillment of his greatest golf goal.
“There were points in my career where I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders,” McIlroy said as he conducted his postround press conference in his Green Jacket, a 38 regular. “I didn’t make it easy today. I certainly didn’t make it easy. I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”
Two strokes ahead of Bryson DeChambeau at the beginning of the final round, McIlroy’s lead was fleeting. The big gallery surrounding the green fell silent as he double bogeyed the first hole to end up in a tie. He recalled on his walk to the second tee that Jon Rahm, the 2023 Masters champion, had rallied to score 65 after making a double bogey on the first hole of that year.
With birdies on the third and fourth holes, McIlroy recovered swiftly. He led by four strokes going into the second nine after making a birdie at the ninth. He avoided major mistakes at the beginning of the second nine that cost him dearly when he had the lead with nine holes remaining in 2011, and he kept that advantage (over Rose and Ludvig Åberg) when he reached the thirteenth hole.
However, his third attempt at No. 13 was problematic. He made a double bogey, his fourth of the week, after wedgeing his third ball from 86 yards into a Rae’s Creek tributary. As McIlroy bogeyed the 14th hole, CBS analyst Trevor Immelman remarked, “His world is spinning right now.”
Then, once more, McIlroy turned the ship around. On No. 15, a two-putt birdie was made after a magnificent hooking 7-iron from 207 yards. He started a pulling 8-iron approach from 184 yards out on the par-4 17th hole. McIlroy advanced and yelled, “Go!” with each step as it soared toward the green until he could see where it was going—two feet from the cup. With the birdie, McIlroy regained his lead and dropped back to 12-under.
He started the day with a charge from seven back, and Rose was up ahead finishing off a spectacular effort that saw him birdie the entire Amen Corner. Rose remarked, “I kind of went into the place that you dream about going to around the middle of the round.” “I was really happy with my performance. felt fantastic in my head. I started to feel like I was getting into the competition by playing my way in. I had a laser-like focus outside.
Rose returned to 11-under with a 20-footer on the final hole. McIlroy would have won with a par, but he missed a five-foot par putt and struck the right greenside bunker from 125 yards out.
Rose, 44, was trying to become the second-oldest Masters champion going into his second playoff at Augusta National after losing to Sergio Garcia on the first extra hole in 2017.
Harry Diamond, McIlroy’s caddie, informed him that they would have taken a chance to earn a Green Jacket in a playoff at the beginning of the week as he went to replay No. 18. McIlroy was able to regroup from the wild final round and closing bogey thanks to the comment. Rose is one of just two golfers to lose two Masters playoffs, along with Ben Hogan. Byron Nelson defeated Hogan in 1942, and Sam Snead did the same in 1954.
“Today I hit a lot of quality shots under pressure, and I felt like I was getting stronger and stronger and stronger as the round was going on,” Rose said. “I felt so good with my game, good with my emotions, and I’m super proud of that.”
Rose pushed McIlroy to the brink as DeChambeau faltered, shooting 75 to tie for sixth. This forced him to draw on a reservoir of optimism that he had attempted to maintain even throughout his slumps in the quest for a Green Jacket and the Grand Slam.
“You have to be the eternal optimist in this game,” McIlroy said. “I’ve been saying it until I’m blue in the face: ‘I truly believe I’m a better player now than I was 10 years ago.’ It’s so hard to stay patient. It’s so hard to keep coming back every year and trying your best and not being able to get it done. There were points on the back nine today, I thought, ‘Have I let this slip again?’ But I responded with some clutch shots when I needed to, and really proud of myself for that.”
The difficult defeats had left scars. Sunday’s difficult circumstances made many stop. Despite mistakes he would love to have changed and legs that felt like jelly on the first tee, McIlroy persisted until he had achieved success. It had been difficult and deserved. It was amazing, and he was the nicest sort of exhausted.