Rory McIlroy must still be pinching himself more than one week after holing the putt which won him The Masters title and saw him complete the career grand slam.
When Rory McIlroy reached Augusta National in 2015, it seemed a matter of time before he won the one major which had eluded him in the early stages of his career. Certainly, few could have imagined that he would have to wait a decade for that green jacket.
In truth, McIlroy rarely came close to winning the first major of the year along the way. But something appeared to be different about the 35-year-old at the start of the 2025 season.
The Northern Irishman won twice on the PGA Tour leading into The Masters. And when he fought back from making two double bogeys late on in his first round at Augusta, it appeared that he was about to put his foot down in a way he had not done at The Masters since perhaps 2011.
However, we should have all known that McIlroy was not going to make winning his first major in 11 years so simple.
What many players have said about Rory McIlroy winning The Masters
McIlroy made a double bogey on the first hole on Sunday. And he was at it again on the 13th, inexplicably finding Rae’s Creek. Another bogey would follow on the next hole, too.
And just when it appeared that McIlroy had steadied the ship enough, he found the green side bunker on 18 when a par was all he needed. It was hard to remain positive as his putt for a four slid by.
But McIlroy did finally get the job done in a playoff with Justin Rose. It was no surprise that he could only collapse on the spot after holing the winning putt. Suddenly, he had no reason to hold himself up under the weight of 11 years of burden.
And it seems that many of his peers were stunned by what McIlroy put himself through at Augusta, as Todd Lewis told the Golf Channel Podcast following the RBC Heritage.
“The biggest thing is that, from a players’ perspective and I guess a fans’ perspective too, I’ve heard a lot of players tell me that they’ve never seen another player work so hard to win a tournament as they did watching Rory McIlroy trying to win The Masters,” he said.
“In essence, that was so great for the game. Let’s think about this, if Rory had won by six, it still would have been a great story, I’m not diminishing that at all, but the way he won and starting on the 10th tee with a four-shot lead and not having to battle anybody but Augusta National and himself, that was quite dramatic, quite relatable, and obviously for him to overcome and do it was great.”
How Scottie Scheffler reacted to Rory McIlroy completing the career grand slam at The Masters
It was Scottie Scheffler who presented McIlroy with the green jacket. That obviously felt significant as Scheffler is the player who inspired McIlroy to make changes to his game over the last few months.
And ahead of this past week’s event at Harbour Town, Scheffler explained what that experience was like to be the person to put the jacket on McIlroy.
“In that moment, like it was such an emotional day for him, I kind of just tried to stay out of the way and basically get the jacket on without embarrassing him or myself,” he said.
“I got to watch the whole celebration. I watched the finish. It was really cool for me to be able to see because I have — I don’t have the understanding of what it’s like to be asked about the career grand slam, but I have a small understanding of what it’s like to be asked, hey, you accomplished this, but you haven’t accomplished that. It can be very taxing on people sometimes.
“It was cool to be able to see Rory get the job done. Definitely from the outside it looked a lot more like relief than anything. Rory has accomplished everything in the game of golf, and that was really the last thing for him to accomplish. The guy has won FedExCup, The Players, all four majors. Maybe the only other thing would be the Olympics is what he would want to win.
“So for him, it was really cool for me to be there in that moment. He’s a good friend of mine. To be able to congratulate him and just see the joy on him and his family was really cool.”
It will be very interesting to see which player wins more majors from this point. Based on this year, it seems that McIlroy is the one with all of the momentum right now.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
