Sport

Emotional triumph as Rory McIlroy claims long-awaited Masters victory and career Grand Slam

Justin Rose of England plays a shot from a bunker on the second hole during the final round of the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 13, 2025 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

By Craig Ray

14 Apr 2025

Rory McIlroy finally completed the career Grand Slam with a play-off victory over Justin Rose at the Masters for a hugely popular win.

The screams of “Rory, Rory” reverberating through the Augusta National pines on a dramatic Sunday will echo for an eternity through golf’s narrative because Rory McIlroy finally got it done.

His heaving, sobbing body — the crying heard around the world — was one of the most vulnerable and raw sights in sports history. And without doubt, the most visceral and honest reaction to victory in golf’s history.

It was pure relief after years of emotional torment and a day of Himalayan-esque peaks and troughs on course.

Almost 14-years to the day after blowing a four-shot lead on Sunday at the Masters, and almost 11 years from winning his fourth major at the PGA Championship, McIlroy became a Masters champion.

With his play-off victory with a birdie on the par-four 18th to deny Justin Rose, McIlroy became the sixth man in history to complete the career Grand Slam.

McIlroy plays a shot from the ninth tee during the final round of the Masters. (Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

His name will now sit beside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only men to win all four majors at least once.

It’s a small club and one that McIlroy has been destined to join. Only that in golf, destiny is just an opinion. Usually of others. Players have to make it happen.

And by goodness how hard did McIlroy try, and how much scar tissue from near misses and collapses in pursuit of the green jacket did he build up?

“It’s tough. You’ve had Jack (Nicklaus), Gary (Player), Tom (Watson), Tiger (Woods), 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,” McIlroy said.

“You know, these are idols of mine, and it’s very flattering that they all come up here and believe in me and in my abilities to be able to win this tournament and to achieve the Grand Slam.

“But it doesn’t help, you know. (Laughter) I wish they didn’t say it.”

For Rose it was gutting — a third runner-up finish at the Masters — after a day in which he recorded 10 birdies for a final-round 66. McIlroy shot a final-round 73.

Human

As good as the Rose story might have been had he won, there are few sports people who are as compelling as McIlroy. For all his genius, talent and success, he is a flawed human prone to bouts of self-doubt and failure, which we can all relate to.

Of course, every athlete in any sport is human and susceptible to those emotions. But most hide behind robotic responses and actions — even when they fail — which makes them inaccessible in a way that feels inhuman.

McIlroy celebrates his victory at Augusta. (Photo: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)

Not McIlroy. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He is transparent. He speaks about his failures and expresses his anguish for all to see. In the cutthroat world of elite golf, publicly admitting to bouts of anxiety and self-doubt is not “normal”.

Admitting you have these very human traits is often perceived as weakness. But for most people who watch golf regularly, it just makes McIlroy more interesting and loveable because he is not boring.

Some of the things he can do with a golf club and a ball — the skill, precision and imagination he produces in his sport — are peerless at times, and not within the realms of all but a handful of humans.

Yet, his mental failings and turmoil in controlling his emotions at crucial junctures are endearingly familiar to anyone with a pulse. And he doesn’t hide them. In a small way it makes him relatable to anyone.

Smooth start

The first five years of his professional career were as good as anyone’s ever, Tiger Woods included. The next 11 years were excellent by any standards, but majors dried up, and at crucial moments so did his confidence and belief.

And even during the final absorbing duel with Rose and others on a memorable Masters Sunday, there were times when Rory visibly wilted under the strain only to find something in himself and come back again.

“I’ve carried that burden since August 2014 (when he won the fourth major at the PGA for the third leg of the Grand Slam),” McIlroy said in his post-match media session.

Justin Rose of England plays a shot from a bunker on the second hole during the final round of the Masters on 13 April 2025 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)

“And it was not just about winning my next major, but the career Grand Slam. Trying to join a group of five players to do it while watching a lot of my peers get green jackets in the process, has been difficult.

“I’ve tried to approach this tournament with the most positive attitude every time that I’ve shown up, and I think just the sort of cumulative experience that I gained coming back here each year, I felt like I got a little more comfortable with the shots needed.

“I talked about it at the start of the week, but you know, there’s talking about it and actually doing it.

“And yeah, today was… today was difficult. I was unbelievably nervous this morning. Really nervous on the first hole, as you witnessed with the double bogey.

“But it sort of calmed me down and I was able to bounce back and show that resilience that I’ve talked about a lot.

“It was a heavy weight to carry, and thankfully now I don’t have to carry it and it frees me up because I’m coming back here every year, which is lovely.”

Courage

There is also courage. The courage to fail but to keep coming back and trying again.

And for McIlroy, on such a public stage where there is nowhere to hide under the glare of hundreds of cameras and thousands of people, he has failed.

Even at Augusta and even in the final round of the most compelling Masters tournament for years, McIlroy endured mini-failures and crises of confidence in the space of five drama-filled hours.

A double-bogey on the first hole wiped out his two-shot lead in a blink as playing partner Bryson DeChambeau parred. Walking off the first green McIlroy was suddenly tied for the lead, and for his legion of fans the doubts started early.

He briefly took a four-shot lead, and as he stood on the par-five 13th tee, his lead was three and destiny was in reach. But somehow he dumped a wedge into Rae’s Creek in front of the green and made a double bogey seven — his fourth double bogey of the week.

A bogey at 14 followed and suddenly he was one shot behind as Rose was draining birdie putts several groups ahead.

It was painful to watch what was starting to become a familiar Rory meltdown. You could see it on his face. He looked paler and drawn. The pressure was visible. He sucked on a water bottle and took deep breaths.

On the par-five 15th he hit one of the shots of his life — a towering, hooking seven iron from 190 metres to six feet from the hole. He missed the eagle putt but made a good birdie.

A solid par on the 16th followed and yet another brilliant approach on the 17th led to a birdie three.

McIlroy led by one standing on the final tee of the 2025 Masters. It was his to lose.

A great drive followed by a sloppy wedge into the greenside bunker, compounded by a passable but not great bunker shot, left him an uncomfortable eight feet for victory.

Of course he missed because this is the Rory story. His nerves failed and he showed his vulnerability as a player and a human. And we loved him more.

He somehow regrouped and trudged back to the 18th tee for a play-off with Rose. Another great drive followed, leaving him with a wedge to the green again. This time he didn’t dump it into the bunker but stuck it to two feet.

Rose missed his lengthy birdie putt setting the stage for Rory to finally, finally, get the job done with a short putt. But this was Rory. This was a putt for destiny. Nothing was guaranteed.

And then he did it and collapsed in a heap, sobbing. DM

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