Rory McIlroy in Augusta. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
(Andrew Redington via Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Nothing ever comes easy for Rory McIlroy in a major. Nothing. Three different times he appeared to have locked up the 2025 Masters, and three different times, he fumbled it or had it snatched from his grasp.
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But finally, McIlroy has claimed his green jacket. It took him 72 holes plus a one-hole playoff against Justin Rose, it took him multiple collapses and resuscitations, but at last, McIlroy is a Masters champion, once again a major winner, and now one of the six men with a career grand slam.
On the first hole of sudden death, McIlroy and Rose both journeyed back to the 18th tee, and both hammered their drives into the fairway. Rose’s approach settled about 15 feet from the pin. But McIlroy met the moment, placing his approach inside Rose’s and just three feet from the pin … again.
Rose’s birdie attempt slipped just past the hole, and that once again left McIlroy with a four-foot putt to win the Masters. This time, he didn’t miss.
Long one of the finest players of his generation, McIlroy has flourished on every stage but the biggest one for the last 11 years, winning everywhere but in the tournaments that matter most. On Sunday, however, he emphatically hurled all his demons and skeletons into Rae’s Creek, battling back from near-constant self-inflicted adversity, an early challenge from Bryson DeChambeau, and a late threat from Justin Rose.
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With the win, McIlroy also completed the career Grand Slam, the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 and only the sixth player in golf history. For so long, it appeared McIlroy would never don a green jacket, never shake off the ghosts that have haunted him here since 2011.
It wasn’t easy. It probably wasn’t a whole lot of fun for him, either. But a win is a win, and this career-defining moment is one he’ll cherish forever.
McIlroy survives early stumble
The world waited all year for the Masters, and on Monday, the skies forced everyone to wait just a little longer. A deluge washed out all but about three hours of the day, soaking patrons and leaving players indoors plotting how to prepare for Thursday. (The patrons who lost out on their bucket-list day will get the chance to buy badges next year.)
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McIlroy met the media in his customary early-morning start on Tuesday, and — as he has for more than a decade now — tried to make sense of his long major drought. Coming into Augusta, McIlroy had failed to win in any major since 2014, and his heartbreaks had become legend — falling apart in the final pairing at Augusta in 2018, watching helplessly as challengers posted the Sunday rounds of their lives at the British Open in 2022 and the U.S. Open in 2023, and — most devastating of all — a loss after leading for 70 holes and missing two short putts at Pinehurst last year.
Any one of those would be devastating; all four combined, and another 30-plus besides, are apocalyptic. But McIlroy has chosen to spin those heartbreaks into motivation.
“Over the course of my career, I think I’ve showed quite a lot of resilience from setbacks,” he said. “Look, you have setbacks and you have disappointments, but as long as you can learn from them, and move forward and try to put those learnings into practice,I feel like is very, very important.”
A few hours later, McIlroy had a tiny bit of fun — perhaps the only real “fun” he would have all week on the course — when he skipped a ball across 16 and right over the shell of a local resident:
The tournament proper began on Thursday morning with the traditional ceremonial tee shots from Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson. Afterward, all three legends picked McIlroy to win this week. Player, on another tangent, held forth on Arby’s, marriage and death … in one answer.
McIlroy opened the tournament at +650 to win, the second-highest player in the field behind Scottie Scheffler (+450). DeChambeau went off at +1600, likely the highest odds he’ll start a tournament with for some time.
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The early leader at the 2025 Masters: 44-year-old Justin Rose, who leaped out of the gate with eight birdies to post an opening-round 65 and a three-stroke lead on the field.
The Masters always welcomes back its past champions, and sometimes, those champions enjoy a bit of champions’ luck. Consider, for instance, 65-year-old Fred Couples, who carded a 191-yard eagle on Thursday:
McIlroy appeared to be rolling through Thursday, carding a four-under round right up until he got to the 15th. Two double bogeys over three holes blew a hole in his card, leaving him at even and destroying the momentum he’d carefully built up over 14 holes.
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The highlight/lowlight of Thursday, depending on your perspective: amateur Jose Luis Ballester deciding to relieve himself in Rae’s Creek during his round. It was a significant breach of Augusta National etiquette, one he apologized for the following day.
DeChambeau surged into second place, just one stroke behind Rose, with a five-birdie Friday punctuated with brilliance like this:
McIlroy, meanwhile, managed to salvage both his dignity and his tournament with a round that started slow and finished with a five-under run on the back nine:
The most touching moment of Friday afternoon came when two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer walked up the 18th fairway for the final time as a player. Langer needed to get up and down to make the cut, but wasn’t able to do so, missing by just inches.
The most bizarre moment of Friday afternoon came when Scottie Scheffler, who never really seemed to get comfortable this week, found himself deep in the woods alongside 18:
An average round for Scheffler is an exceptional round for anyone else on earth, which is why Scheffler remained in the top 10 throughout the tournament.
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McIlroy seized control of the tournament on Saturday with a spectacular opening — six straight 3s — that vaulted him past DeChambeau and the rest of the field. Rose, meanwhile, carded a three-over 75 that left him seven strokes back of McIlroy and, apparently, out of the tournament. Apparently.
McIlroy’s signature moment on the day came at 15, the hole that had victimized him on Thursday. But on Saturday, he knew the shot was good the moment he struck it, and began walking with the confident strut he hasn’t shown much in recent years.
DeChambeau, as many as four strokes back, finished with a flourish, birdieing three of the last four holes and draining a 47-foot putt on 18 to pull within two strokes of McIlroy:
That set up a magnificent Sunday, McIlroy (-12) vs. DeChambeau (-10). The rest of the field lurked two strokes behind DeChambeau, but Sunday loomed as the perfect golf heavyweight fight. “It will be the grandest stage that we’ve had in a long time,” DeChambeau said, “and I’m excited for it.”
Sunday’s chaotic start at Augusta
To call Sunday’s front nine a “rollercoaster” would be incorrect; a rollercoaster that whipped like the opening few holes of the final round of the 2025 Masters did would severely maim its riders. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, McIlroy and DeChambeau finally reached the first tee at 2:30 p.m. And McIlroy, who teed off first, promptly put his first shot of the day into the fairway bunker. McIlroy then proceeded to three-putt from 26 feet, and just like that, the match was even at 10-under.
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A double-bogey on the first hole qualified as a nightmarish start for McIlroy, and he followed that by putting his tee shot on the par-5 2nd into another fairway bunker. DeChambeau took advantage, birdieing the hole and snatching the lead from McIlroy in just two holes.
Matters looked grim indeed for McIlroy. Only one player in history — Craig Stadler in 1982 — won with three double-bogeys in a tournament. McIlroy hung his head on the second as DeChambeau drained his putt, and the momentum was in DeChambeau’s favor through the first two holes.
But then came the third, where McIlroy fired a spectacular drive off the tee and birdied the hole, while DeChambeau yet again struggled with his approach. The result: another two-shot reversal, giving McIlroy a one-stroke lead at 11-under. The par-3 fourth hole brought more of the same; DeChambeau’s tee shot flew wide left, and he wasn’t able to convert his par putt even as McIlroy drained another birdie. That extended the lead to three shots after just four holes, and McIlroy strutted once again.
Over the next two holes, DeChambeau struggled with his short irons and approaches, while McIlroy couldn’t quite close the deal with his putter. Then came the seventh, and the defining shot of the front nine. McIlroy, behind two massive pines with no apparent line on the green, unleashed a moon shot that went over both trees and settled within eight feet of the cup.
Just before McIlroy and DeChambeau made the turn, two other players suddenly entered the discussion: Rose birdied 11, 12 and 13, and Ludvig Åberg birdied 10. Behind them, McIlroy birdied 9, which sent him to the back nine with a four-shot lead.
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Back in 2011, when McIlroy led the tournament, his round fell apart on the 10th tee, when he jacked a drive deep into the cabins running along the left side of the fairway. On Sunday, his drive was nowhere near any cabins, exorcising the first of his demons. Then he proceeded to roll in a birdie putt on the same hole he’d double-bogeyed in 2011, climbing to 14-under.
Ahead of him, Rose missed an eagle on the 13th by three dimples of the golf ball, tapping in for birdie to get to 10-under and one stroke ahead of DeChambeau and Åberg. But Rose gave it right back on the 14th, allowing McIlroy (briefly) the luxury of a five-stroke lead.
And then came one of those signs that maybe the Golf Gods were favoring McIlroy. On a skidding approach to 11, his ball stopped perhaps a foot short of rolling into Rae’s Creek. He bogeyed the hole, falling back to -13 and four strokes ahead of Rose, but that was far preferable to sending his ball to a watery grave.
DeChambeau, meanwhile, wasn’t quite so fortunate; his aggressive approach at 11 ended in the water, and he would go on to double-bogey the hole, falling to -7 and effectively ejecting himself from the tournament.
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McIlroy wrapped up Amen Corner with a sensible play, laying up on No. 13 to seemingly take Rae’s Creek out of the equation. Rose, meanwhile, hung tough, birdieing the 15th to draw back within three of McIlroy. He dropped his approach on 16 to within five feet of the cup, setting up yet another birdie putt.
And then, because nothing ever comes easy for McIlroy, self-inflicted disaster struck. He weak-chipped his approach on 13 right into the creek after all, and then missed a short bogey putt to drop to -11. Seconds later, Rose rolled in his five-footer on 16 to reach -11 and tie the lead.
Åberg kept pace, birdieing the 15th to close to -10, one stroke off the lead. And then McIlroy joined him there, bogeying the 14th by one rotation of the ball on his par putt. Moments later, Rose bogeyed 17 to fall back to -10.
So with four holes remaining in the Masters, Rose, Åberg and McIlroy all stood tied at -10.
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Then McIlroy, tucked on the left side of 15 beneath and behind a stand of pines, unleashed arguably the greatest shot in Masters history, a high, curling draw that settled just six feet from the pin. Naturally, he missed the eagle putt — nothing is ever easy with McIlroy — but he rolled in the birdie putt to retake a one-stroke lead.
It wouldn’t last. Up ahead on the 18th, Rose rolled in a 20-foot birdie to match McIlroy at -11 and set the clubhouse lead at -11. That was enough to make Rose the favorite to win at 58 percent to McIlroy’s 42 percent, per DataGolf.
And then McIlroy once again climbed up off the deck, firing an iron from 197 yards on 17 to within two feet for a birdie. He rolled in the putt — which surely must have been the most terrifying two-footer of his career — to take a one-shot lead at -12 with one hole to play.
Leading by one stroke standing on the terrifying 18th tee, McIlroy calmly striped his drive 317 yards into the middle of the fairway, 124 yards from the pin. Naturally, his approach shot ended up in the greenside bunker. He punched out of the sand to within five feet, and had that distance to win the Masters and the career grand slam … and he slid it just left of the hole, setting up the playoff with Rose.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.