1 week Ago By Jon McCarthy
Article content AUGUSTA, Ga. — One tournament shouldn’t mean so much. One day shouldn’t define a career.
One golf shot shouldn’t separate legend from tragic figure. But logic takes a back seat to magic on Sunday at the Masters, and finally, somehow, eventually, it was Rory McIlroy’s time. Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but nobody knew it would be that hard.
Jack Nicklaus in 1986. Tiger Woods in 2019. And now Rory McIlroy in 2025.
It was that kind of Sunday at Augusta National. Anguish followed by joy. Pressure followed by release.
Over and over and over again. And then one more time. After nothing more was possible, it ended in a playoff with the 35-year-old McIlroy winning his first green jacket, immortalizing his name among the greatest to ever play by completing the career grand slam.
Eleven years after last winning a major championship, McIlroy has joined Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen as the only men to win the Masters, Open Championship, U.S. Open and PGA Championship.
After a roller-coaster day, McIlroy closed with birdies holes 15 and 17 to take a one-shot lead over Justin Rose, before somehow doing both the most unthinkable and most obvious thing and missing a Masters-winning five-footer for par on the 72nd hole. If a day could be a microcosm of a career, that was Sunday at Augusta for McIlroy. After breathtaking birdies at the par-5 15th and par-4 17th, McIlroy simply needed to make par from the middle of the fairway on the 72nd hole.
His approach was never on target, landing with a thud in the right greenside bunker. His missed putt took the rest of the breath out of the thousands surrounding the green. The final hole bogey sent McIlroy and Rose back to the 18th tee to decide the tournament in a playoff.
After both men found the fairway, Rose nearly jarred his approach shot in the hole, before it bounced and came to rest 19 feet away. McIlroy followed up with yet another majestic iron shot that flew past the hole before spinning back beautifully and nestling just four feet from the hole. After birdieing 18 in regulation, Rose missed.
After missing in regulation, McIlroy made it. The Northern Irishman fell to the ground in joy, heaving with emotion. Finally, it was over.
The day. The chase. The doubt.
Everything. After furiously pumping his fists and screaming in victory, he walked off the green toward his wife Erica and so very gently lifted his daughter Poppy into his arms. MORE TO COME.
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