Grand finale! McIlroy does it ... somehow
Rory reaches career slam after emotional rollercoaster Masters Sunday drama
Rory McIlroy’s relief reaction was primal when he finally delivered on career slam (Simon Bruty/ANGC via Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Forget 2011. Forget the 11-year major drought. Forget the four-shot lead he lost in a flash on the second nine Sunday. Forget the bogey he made to fall into a playoff. Forget any and all of the heartbreak and cardiac arrests that Rory McIlroy has endured and inflicted in the quest for greatness.
As shaky as it was in a madcap Masters Sunday — and boy was it shaky between moments of pure brilliance — McIlroy managed to slam the door on any and all negative narratives by completing the career grand slam with an emotional roller-coaster final round and a brilliant birdie in sudden death to defeat Justin Rose.
They don’t draw pictures on the green jackets. All that counts is getting it.
McIlroy stuck a wedge to 3 feet on 18 in the playoff after flaring one into the bunker in regulation. Then he drained the putt to achieve golfing immortality as the sixth player to compete the career grand slam. When it was done, he dropped to his knees in exhaustion and relief with heaving sobs after taking himself and the golf world on a wild ride to glory.
“Honestly, you know, what came out of me on the last green there in the playoff was, you know, at least 11 years, if not 14 years of pent-up emotion,” McIlroy said of his long journey.
“This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” McIlroy said in the Butler Cabin. “I think the last 10 years coming here with the burden of the grand slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that, yeah, I’m sort of wondering what we’re all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters. But I’m just absolutely honored and thrilled and just so proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”
McIlroy will bring the first green jacket home to Ireland in the last missing puzzle piece for Irish golf. Shane Lowry, who suffered a long day shooting 81, stuck around to deliver a bear hug to his longtime friend and celebrate history.
“Look, spending time with him and knowing him as well as I do, for him it’s everything,” Lowry said. “He might not want to say that, but it’s genuinely everything for him the last 10 years since he won the third one. Then he wanted to win this to get the career grand slam. It’s huge. It’s huge for Irish golf. It’s huge for everyone. I’m delighted for him.”
Shane Lowry greets his mate with a bear hug after “huge” accomplishment (Chris Condon/ANGC)
Despite blowing a four-shot lead in a span of two holes on the second nine, McIlroy hit two of the gutsiest and most majestic approaches on 15 and 17 — the two holes he doubled on Thursday — for a pair of tie-breaking birdies to get back to the same 12-under where he started the day.
But like everything else in his recent major journeys, nothing came easy for McIlroy as he failed to get up and down from the bunker on the last hole of regulation and made bogey, posting 73 and falling into a tie with Rose at 11-under. Rose charged with a 66 Sunday including a 20-foot birdie on the 72nd hole to put all the pressure on McIlroy’s shoulders again.
“I didn’t make it easy today. I certainly didn’t make it easy,” McIlroy said. “I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”
Rose — who led after 18, 36 and 72 holes this week — had to settle for his third Masters runner-up and second career playoff loss at Augusta.
“Listen, this is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it, someone who achieves the career grand slam,” Rose said. “I just said it was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously, I wanted to be the bad guy today. But still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”
Former champion Patrick Reed finished solo third after a hole-out eagle at 17, while defending champion Scottie Scheffler rallied to finish fourth.Other contenders Sunday including Bryson DeChambeau and Ludvig Åberg fell off.
McIlroy will host the Champions Dinner next April with three of his fellow career-slam brethren at the table — Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods. Only the late Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan will be missing from golf’s most exclusive club. With the monkey off his back and the green jacket on his shoulders, McIlroy is invited back to Augusta every April for the rest of his life with the opportunity to keep chasing for more glory.
Rory McIlroy shows off spoils with daughter, Poppy, and wife, Erica (Simon Bruty/ANGC)
Sunday marked the most anticipated final showdown in modern Masters memory, as McIlroy and DeChambeau walked into the arena like prizefighters to raucous cheers from patrons who lined every step of their way from the clubhouse to the practice green to the first tee. Arguably two of the most popular and polarizing players in the game, the showdown presented narratives of redemption and history.
Not since Nick Faldo and Greg Norman in 1996 has the final pairing at the Masters been shared by multiple major winners — and that proved historic as Norman’s collapsed and yielded a six-shot lead to Faldo’s charge.
But the leading duo let everyone else back into it and the story changed direction every which way on the back nine.
McIlroy’s start quickly got uncomfortably familiar in an opening hour that didn’t disappoint as the two golfing heavyweights traded haymakers.
With three two-shot swings in the first four holes, McIlroy erased his two-shot advantage with a double bogey on 1 and lost his lead altogether to a DeChambeau birdie on 2.
But instead of wilting under the pressure and the shock of losing his lead so quickly, McIlroy went on the attack and converted a delicate up-and-down for birdie on the third and another on the par-3 fourth, curling in 9-footers on both while DeChambeau stumbled to bogeys on each of them.
After all that madness, McIlroy walked to the fifth tee with a bigger lead than he started the day with.
“In a funny way, I feel like the double bogey at the first sort of settled my nerves,” McIlroy said. “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.”
It was the turn hinge at 9 and 10 where McIlroy seemed to all but slam the door on any spoilers.
McIlroy bombed a drive down the middle on 9 and hit a wedge hole high to the dangerous front pin. His 8-footer for birdie found the bottom of the cup and DeChambeau missed from closer, sending the Holywood man to the back nine at 13-under with a four-shot lead over three players — DeChambeau, Rose and Ludvig Åberg all at 9-under.
Then on the 10th hole where his 2011 meltdown with the lead began, McIlroy found the middle of the fairway this time and hit his approach to 15 feet below the hole. When he drained that, his lead remained four shots.
It was then that a day that already qualified for crazy turned into certifiable insanity. As Tommy Fleetwood said: “The back nine was Rory McIlroy’s career in a nutshell.”
McIlroy bogeyed 11 despite his approach suddenly stopping just shy of sinking in the pond. With a safe par at 12, he was still four clear after Justin Rose bogeyed 14 up ahead.
All of Georgia to his left and McIlroy went right on 13 and made double (Kieran Cleeves/ANGC)
McIlroy took his foot off the gas and laid up safely left with a perfect angle for a little wedge into the par-5 green. With all of Georgia to the left, however, McIlroy went right and into the creek. That led to his fourth double bogey of the week – a collection of mishaps nobody has ever recovered from to win a green jacket.
“I don’t know if any Masters champions had four doubles during the week, but maybe I’m the first,” he said. “But yeah, just a complete roller coaster of emotions today.”
Moments after McIlroy’s double, Rose made birdied and the lead was all gone. After a bogey at 14, it was suddenly a three-way tie for the tied between Rose, McIlroy and Åberg.
But McIlroy reached deep when he had to, hitting towering approaches on 15 and 17 to 6 and 3 feet to get the birdies he needed and a make-up wedge in the playoff to deliver Ireland its first green jacket.
“It was a heavy weight to carry, and thankfully now I don’t have to carry it and it frees me up and I know I’m coming back here every year, which is lovely,” McIlroy said.