On Sunday morning, Rory McIlroy went into the final round of the Masters Tournament tied for the lead with Cameron Young. It was the eighth occasion he had held at least a share of the lead after 54 holes of a major championship. He had won five of the previous seven. He’s now taken his conversion rate to 75%. Having waited 11 years to complete the career Grand Slam, which he did at Augusta last year, his second green jacket has come along with the comparative rapidity of the metaphorical London bus.
His closing round of 71, one under par, brought him victory by a shot from Scottie Scheffler, who played the final 36 hole without a bogey, and by two from Young, Justin Rose, Russell Henley and Tyrrell Hatton. The latter’s closing 66 had set a clubhouse mark of ten under par. For Rose, runner-up after a playoff last year and in 2017, there was further heartbreak here. He briefly led by two shots as he reached the turn but he bogeyed 11 and 12, three-putted the par-five 13th and his race was effectively run. At the end, McIlroy could even afford the luxury of a bogey at the last.
The pivotal moment may have come at the 12th, the 155-yard par-three which Jack Nicklaus famously called “the hardest hole in tournament golf”. With the pin cut in its customary Sunday position far to the right of Donald Trump, and the cool waters of Rae’s Creek awaiting a false blow, McIlroy went with a three-quarter 9-iron. “I aimed at the middle of the bunker,” he said. “Probably didn’t anticipate it to drift as far right as it did. That’s why you give yourself a little bit of margin for error.” His ball finished seven feet from the cup. The birdie putt went in. “Absolutely huge, huge shot in the tournament,” was its maker’s verdict.
There was another particularly huge bonus for McIlroy compared to 2025: his parents were there to watch him. “I caught myself on the golf course a couple of times thinking about them”, he said. “I was like ‘no, not yet, not yet’. It’s really cool to have them here. I had to sort of convince them to come this year because they thought the reason I won last year was because they weren’t here. I’m glad we proved that wrong so they can keep coming as long as they want.”
After six birdies in his final seven holes on Friday had opened up a six-shot lead at halfway, a Masters record, McIlroy said: “I’ve always loved the tournament and loved this golf course, even when I felt it didn’t love me back.” He certainly found the going tougher on Saturday, by the end of which his lead had evaporated, but this year was different to those which had gone before, as he readily acknowledged. The stats might have shown that his driving accuracy was the worst of anyone who made the cut. What nothing could show, physically, was how he felt inside now that he no longer carried the burden of being desperate to win the thing.
A final thought, which occurred to me as the club chairman, Fred Ridley, helped McIlroy into his green jacket. That task usually goes to the previous year’s champion, who was of course McIlroy. When Nick Faldo became the second man to retain the title, in 1990, a similar scenario played out. I remember a few months after that saying to him that I was surprised they hadn’t asked Nicklaus, then the only other man to have mounted a successful defence at Augusta, to do the honours. It wasn’t like he wasn’t there; he’d played with Faldo in the final round. Faldo agreed: he thought they would have done that; seemed maybe a little disappointed they hadn’t. This year, I think they should have asked Nick to hand over to Rory. (I am guessing Nicklaus was by then at home in Florida and Tiger Woods, the only other ‘retainee’, is away having driving lessons or whatever.)
Faldo was manifestly in attendance and such a gesture would have been doubly fitting. He won the Masters in 1989 and 1990; McIlroy has won the 89th and the 90th editions of the tournament. Add to that the fact that McIlroy has now tied Faldo’s tally of six majors, then such a decision would have been especially appropriate. As regards British/European golfers, only Harry Vardon on seven sits above that mark.
That’s a point perhaps to bear in mind if it happens again? Obviously, though, if McIlroy achieves a ‘three-peat’ next spring, we are in genuinely unchartered territory.