Rory McIlroy wins epic Masters in playoff, completes career grand slam

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — One tournament shouldn’t mean so much. One day shouldn’t define a career. One golf shot shouldn’t separate an all-time legend from a 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.

“Just stay the course. Just keep believing.”

Sitting in his green jacket after the round, that was the advice McIlroy said he would have for a younger version of himself.

“And I would say that to any young boy or girl that’s listening to this,” he added. “I’ve literally made my dreams come true today. Believe in your dreams and if you work hard enough and if you put the effort in that you can achieve anything you want.”

Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but nobody knew it would be this 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 Masters, immortalizing his name among the greatest to play by completing the career grand slam.

“I’ve carried that burden since August 2014. It’s nearly 11 years,” McIlroy said, recalling the date of his last major championship win before Sunday. “I was unbelievably nervous this morning.”

“Look, you have to be the eternal optimist in this game. You know, I’ve been saying it until I’m blue in the face. I truly believe I’m a better player now than I was 10 years ago.”

McIlroy has joined Nicklaus, Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen as the only men to win the Masters, Open Championship, U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

“It’s tough. You know, you’ve had Jack, Gary, Tom (Watson), Tiger, you name it, come through here and all say that I’ll win the Masters one day. That’s a hard load to carry. It really is,” he said. “You know, these are idols of mine, and it’s very flattering … but it doesn’t help, you know. I wish they didn’t say it.”

After a roller-coaster day, McIlroy closed with birdies at 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.

McIlroy began the day with a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau and left the second hole trailing the LIV Golf star by one. The champion finished his fourth round with six birdies, three bogeys and two double bogeys for a 1-over 73.

If a day could be a microcosm of a career, that’s what the magic- and mistake-filled Sunday at Augusta was for McIlroy.

Nobody had won the Masters with more than two double bogeys for the week. McIlroy had four, including two in the final round. He might have had a third if his approach shot on the dangerous par-4 11th hole didn’t hang on the edge of the water. DeChambeau wasn’t as lucky and saw his green jacket hopes sink for good in the pond moments later.

“Look, I’ve rode my luck all week,” McIlroy said. “And again, I think with the things that I’ve had to endure over the last few years, I think I deserved it. Any time I hit it in the trees this week, I had a gap. Even the second shot on (No.) 7 today, which I probably shouldn’t have taken on. … So I rode my luck all week and you need that little bit of luck.”

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After breathtaking birdies at the par-5 15th and par-4 17th, McIlroy simply needed to make par from the fairway with a wedge in his hand on the 72nd hole. His approach was never on target, landing with a thud in the right greenside bunker. His missed par putt took 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.

With much less fanfare, but no less grit, Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champion, has been on his own quest to fulfil his destiny. On Sunday, he made 10 birdies, four bogeys and shot a 66 before losing in a Masters playoff for the second time. Sergio Garcia beat him in extra holes in 2017.

“It’s a bogey away from being the greatest round I’ve ever played,” Rose said of Sunday.

“When it gets to the real business end, I feel like I’m really, really calm and ready for it. But it’s disappointing.”

It was 1998 at Royal Birkdale when Rose burst on the scene as 16-year-old British golf prodigy, contending as an amateur at the Open Championship before finishing tied for fourth. Nearly three decades later with a single major championship win to his name, he watched as many of his European Ryder Cup pals happily signed up for early retirement with LIV Golf riches. Rose stayed back.

“I wasn’t ready for anything like that,” Rose told the Toronto Sun in 2023. “I still believe in myself and I still feel like I’ve got that Indian summer of my career to look forward to. So I still feel hungry. I still love the game.”

After both men found the fairway on the 18th hole in the playoff, Rose nearly jarred his second shot on the fly. It landed a foot short and bounced past the pin, coming to rest 19 feet away. McIlroy followed up with yet another majestic shot as his gap wedge approach flew beyond the hole before spinning back beautifully off a ridge and nestling just four feet from the hole.

After birdieing 18 in regulation, Rose missed.

After bogeying 18 in regulation, McIlroy made it.

The Northern Irishman fell to the ground in relief, 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. Surrounded by bedlam, he very gently lifted his daughter Poppy into his arms as if she might break.