McIlroy’s Masters Moment Is Why We Love Golf

Rory McIlroy is a fallible person.

He has said and done things I’ve disagreed with; he has frustratingly changed his opinion on certain topics; he has wrestled, and regularly succumbed, to mental demons during a decade-long major victory drought in the prime of his career—the career of a golfer who has always been brimming with generational talent.

But through it all, Rory McIlroy has been full of humanity, well beyond the increasingly robotic world of professional golfers and athletes in general.

He is not Tiger Woods of the 2000s with his life revolving around competition and little else.

McIlroy is a person first and golfer second. He answers interview questions genuinely, with almost too much honesty for his own good, instead of giving stock answers—even when we don’t like those answers. He can be likable and abrasive; he can hit a golf ball unlike anyone else and then lets negative emotions consume him in ways that other golfers may not even process.

His golf skill is not relatable, but his vulnerability as a person is as relatable as it gets.

All of that—everything from the transcendent to the heart wrenching—was on display Sunday at Augusta National as McIlroy vanquished his two most agonizing demons at once: finally capturing the Masters in his 17th start and finally completing the career grand slam in his 11th attempt.

In winning the Masters, McIlroy is only the sixth man to ever win all four majors, and he is just the second player to do it since Jack Nicklaus in 1966. That is historic, heady stuff.

By the end of the day, it reminded all of us why we love golf.

The week leading up to Sunday had seemed to spell that it was McIlroy’s time. Coming into the tournament, it was McIlroy in the best form among the game’s elite. And if not for a stunning crash late in his Thursday round when he made two double bogeys out of nowhere, the Ulsterman could have won this tournament by five strokes or more.

Regardless, he rebounded with a stellar 66 on Friday and a similarly dominant 66 on Saturday to take a two-shot lead into the final 18 holes. Most figured it would be a duel between McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, just as it had been at last year’s U.S. Open when McIlroy kicked away a major title at Pinehurst with two short misses on the final three holes.

At first, it looked like he might kick this major away, too. His opening tee shot caught the fairway bunker and led to a jarring double bogey. By the third tee, DeChambeau had suddenly taken a one-stroke lead.

It felt like an all too familiar script, similar to how McIlroy fumbled a four-stroke advantage way back in the 2011 Masters.

However, perhaps the most bipolar, topsy turvy round of golf in modern major championship history was just getting started.

While DeChambeau faded and never returned to contention, McIlroy regained his composure with two quick birdies and seized full control of the tournament.

By the time he reached the 11th tee, McIlroy’s lead had grown to four strokes. Data Golf had his winning probability at 95.3 percent. Even with a bogey on the difficult par-4 11th, McIlroy got through the treacherous 12th hole unscathed and was cruising with no trouble in sight.

But the weight of accomplishing such an enormous feat in the game’s history started to pull on him like we’ve never seen before.

“There were points on the back nine today where I thought, ‘Have I let this slip away again?'” McIlroy confided afterwards.

He only had 239 yards into the par-5 13th but decided to layup as he nursed a three-stroke lead over a surging Justin Rose. That decision could be questioned, but there would have been no issues had McIlroy not made one of the worst swings in Masters history by tossing his 90-yard wedge shot into Rae’s Creek, leading to an unfathomable double bogey.

Just as that happened, Rose made birdie on No. 16. It was only two holes prior when Rose walked off the 14th green with a 0.6 percent chance of winning the Masters.

Without warning, McIlroy was now in a dogfight and had given a glimmer of hope to the likes of Ludvig Aberg, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Reed and other pursuers.

A poor tee shot on the 14th led to another bogey, which came moments before Rose made a bogey of his own at the 17th. Aberg was also tied for the lead at 10-under, and the Masters was now embroiled in an all-time dramatic finish.

McIlroy had several more heart-stopping moments left in him.

First came a hooked 7-iron, bending around a tree and coming to rest a handful of feet from the hole. Had he made the eagle putt and cemented victory, that shot would go down in Masters lore forever—maybe it still does, regardless.

Another precise approach at the par-3 16th led to another missed birdie putt. With Rose pouring in a long birdie putt on the 72nd hole, McIlroy needed one more birdie to win the green jacket.

He appeared to find that on the 17th when he launched an approach shot into the sky and watched it come down just a few feet away from the hole for a putt he couldn’t miss.

What would happen in the next 45 minutes is something golf fans will never forget.

McIlroy had all but won the tournament after piping a tee shot perfectly down the 18th hole with just 125 yards remaining. A gap wedge anywhere on the lower level of the putting surface would have done the trick.

Instead, he choked it away. A blocked wedge into the bunker led to McIlroy needing to convert a five-footer for victory. The stroke lacked conviction, the putt missing on the low side.

Had he lost the playoff to Rose, McIlroy’s blunder—combined with the bizarre turn of events on the 13th hole—would be an all-time collapse worthy of inclusion, and perhaps a top spot, on this list.

That nightmare didn’t happen. McIlroy hit another perfect tee shot in the playoff, leaving himself the exact same 125 yards, this time with a flatter lie. It was an ideal three-quarter gap wedge off the backstop, rolling to about four feet.

This time he didn’t miss.

McIlroy’s reaction is, in my estimation, the most relief I’ve ever seen on an athlete’s face. That goes for any sport. This is a tournament he had to have.

“It was all relief,” McIlroy said. “There wasn’t much joy in that reaction. It was all relief… it was a decade-plus of emotion that came out of me there.”

If he didn’t win, this loss would have been a defining moment for McIlroy’s career. His mental toughness would forever be called into question. And it’s doubtful he would have the stones to regroup from that level of devastation for yet another go at the Masters, especially as he heads to his 36th birthday in a few weeks. There are only so many realistic chances left for him.

But in winning, this victory is the defining moment of his career for other reasons.

He fought a lot of ghosts to get this one. Many said he would never win the Masters, or maybe even another major, because of his mental “softness”—and those criticisms had validity to them.

I wrote prior to the year starting that I thought McIlroy would break through for a major win in 2025.

“By a simple matter of data, McIlroy is destined to finally end a major drought that is stretching beyond a decade now,” I wrote back in January. “He’s too good and too involved for one of these not to drop his way.”

Data doesn’t measure emotion, though.

McIlroy has legions of fans because of his honesty and humanity. The golf media is enamored with him because he gives real answers and shows vulnerability in places where, if all he cared about was winning, he probably shouldn’t.

He also has some haters. I was a hater after the Players Championship when he acted like a child. I was a hater when he skipped media after the first round of the Masters instead of owning up to his round and going about his day (this has nothing to do with what players “owe” the media and everything to do with being mentally composed).

And even then, I couldn’t help but shed a tear when he started crying in Butler Cabin. And then again in his post-round ceremony when he told his daughter, Poppy, to never give up on her dreams.

It gave the feeling that no golf tournament in the game’s history has mattered more to a player than this one. Maybe that is a ridiculous statement to make, but I’ve never seen that level of emotion out of a major champion.

I’m around the same age as McIlroy and it feels like I’ve watched his whole evolution as a player and a person—or at least as much as any of us could really know a professional golfer.

You can say a lot about him, but you have to admit he has evolved. He has gone through an evolution. He’s nothing like he was at the beginning of his career, and not even like he was five years ago.

When asked what his 2025 self would say to his 2011 self—the one who blew a Masters opportunity with an epically terrible final round—McIlroy showed that growth.

“I would see a young man who didn’t know a whole lot about the world,” McIlroy said. “And I would tell him to just stay the course.”

He’s been the man in the arena, taking shots and making mistakes in a public, unforgiving setting.

He did it his way while being a relatable human being.

He’s overcome himself to finally climb the mountain.

He’s proven to be, with no debate, one of the greatest golfers to ever live.

Top Photo Caption: Rory McIlroy falls to his knees after winning the 89th Masters. (GETTY IMAGES/David Cannon)

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