The mistake Rory McIlroy was making ‘all day’ in the final round of The Masters according to Brad Faxon

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The final day of the 2025 Masters is unlikely to be placed amongst the pantheon of great rounds Rory McIlroy has played across his career, with the Northern Irishman seemingly doing all he could to make sure that he did not win the green jacket.

No-one who did not watch the final round of The Masters live will ever understand just how much of an emotional rollercoaster Rory McIlroy put everyone on. The 35-year-old made two double bogeys on Sunday alone, while he somehow managed to make a bogey from the middle of the 18th fairway to end up in a playoff with Justin Rose.

Of course, it felt as if McIlroy was doing absolutely everything just to fight the pressure of the occasion. He did not need anyone to tell him how significant winning The Masters would be when it would complete the career grand slam and end an 11 year wait for a fifth major title.

McIlroy simply had to do all he could to capitalise on the good moments, and limit the damage of the mistakes. But it was inevitable that some bad tendencies would creep in.

The mistake Rory McIlroy was making ‘all day’ on Sunday at The Masters

He hit poor putts on a number of holes, including on the first, the 15th and the 18th. And speaking on 5 Clubs, Johnson Wagner shared what his putting coach Brad Faxon made of his performance on the greens.

“So Brad Faxon had talked earlier in the week about when Rory hits bad putts, he comes up and catches it thin. And I talked to Brad after the round, and I was like, ‘man, the putt he hit on 18 in regulation, I saw the replay and it was thin, it was just like you described’. And he said, ‘all day’, Brad was like, ‘all day with the putter, I watched him all day and it was the same’. That’s why, because he kept coming up and [catching it] thin,” he said.

Where Rory McIlroy ranked amongst the field for putting on Sunday at Augusta

It is scarcely believable but just five players lost more strokes on the green than McIlroy in the final round of The Masters. Oddly, the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry and Corey Conners were amongst them.

That suggests that the greens did become harder to putt on as the day went on and they dried out more – making Justin Rose’s performance all the more remarkable.

But McIlroy lost more than two strokes putting in the final round alone.

He actually only gained strokes on the green in the second round, so that may be something that McIlroy and Faxon need to work on as major season gets into full swing.

Having said that, the importance of what transpired last week makes it easy to wonder just how much needs to actually be taken from the details of McIlroy’s performance.