Key events
He was never going to do it any other way, was he? And more power to one of sport’s great entertainers for that. Here’s a final reminder of how the top of the leaderboard looks after all that absurd drama. One of the great Masters Sundays? Without question. Rory did his best to lose it once, twice, three times … but always came back swinging. His astonishing irons into 15 and 17 will surely go down in Masters lore; his dam-busting emotion when he finally secured his holy grail certainly will. Congratulations to Rory, and commiserations to Justin Rose, whose brilliant final round of 66 was in vain, but who will always be part of one of the Masters’ greatest stories. What a Tournament! It’s been a blast, thanks for reading these blogs.
-11: Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose
(McIlroy beat Rose at the first play-off hole)
-9: Patrick Reed
-8: Scottie Scheffler
-7: Im Sung-jae, Bryson DeChambeau
-6: Ludvig Åberg
-5: Xander Schauffele, Zach Johnson, Jason Day, Corey Conners
-4: Harris English, Max Homa
-3: Bubba Watson, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt McCarty, Tom Hoge, Collin Morikawa
-2: Hideki Matsuyama, Davis Riley, Tommy Fleetwood, Daniel Berger, An Byeong-hun, Viktor Hovland
-1: Aaron Rai, Michael Kim
Some more from Rory McIlroy. “Just really proud about how I bounced back … I don’t know if any Masters champions have had four doubles in the week! … maybe I’m the first … there was a note in my locker this morning from Angel Cabrera wishing me luck … he was the player I played with in the final day in 2011 … it was a nice touch … it’s been 14 long years … thankfully I got the job done … I’ve carried that burden since August 2014 … the career grand slam … watching a lot of my peers get Green Jackets in the process … it’s been difficult … I try to approach this Tournament with the most positive attitude … today was difficult … I was unbelievably nervous this morning … really nervous on the first hole … the double calmed me down … it was a heavy weight to carry … thankfully I don’t have to carry it … it frees me up and I know I’m coming back here every year which is lovely.”
A philosophical Justin Rose speaks to Sky Sports. “I felt yesterday put me a little too far back … I tried to remind myself that Sunday at Augusta is a very special place to be … it was a day to enjoy … I went about my business … around the turn I clicked into gear and felt so good … so comfortable … to bury that putt on 18 was an amazing feeling … I’m getting closer and closer and sometimes you’ve got to bang on the door … you can only take confidence from the way I’ve played … really pleased with where my game is … my name isn’t etched into those historic trophies but there’s not a lot I can do different.”
Our man at Augusta, Ewan Murray, has filed his report. Here it is!
… then the outgoing champion Scottie Scheffler presents Rory with his Green Jacket. A bit of a struggle to get the second arm in. “Oop! We got it. There we go!” Then a handshake with chairman Ridley. “Thanks Fred, thank you so much.” A blow-out of the cheeks in relief. He’s got his Green Jacket! This clearly means everything. It’s such a heart-warming moment. Rory McIlroy: Masters champion at last!
More from the new champion Rory McIlroy: “I was really nervous going out … it’s almost as though the double bogey on 1 calmed my nerves a little bit … how I responded to setbacks is what I’ll take from this week … [his emotional reaction] was 14 years in the making after the four-shot lead in 2011 … I feel like I could have got it done there … a lot of pent-up emotion that came out on the 18th green … it makes all the close calls worth it … I want to say hello to my mum and dad who are back home in Northern Ireland … [breaks down a little] … I can’t wait to celebrate this with them.”
The Butler Cabin. “An unforgettable Masters … as exciting as we’ve had in our history,” says Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National GC. “Rory, your play today was amazing … now you’re the Masters champion, how does that feel?”
“Aw … um … it feels incredible … this is my 17th time here … I started to wonder if it would ever be my time … the last ten years with the burden of the career grand slam on my shoulders … I’m sort of wondering what we’re all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters! … honoured and thrilled … so proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”
Post-round postbag. “Do we think any movie could ever be written with more twists and turns than this final Masters round?” – Colin Livingstone
“When I was a lad back in Dublin many years ago I thought the pinnacle of Irish golfing achievement was Christy O’Connor Jr’s 2-iron at the Belfry or Ronan Rafferty topping the European Order of Merit. Never in my wildest dreams did I foresee multiple major winners from our little rocky outpost in the Atlantic. And yet, with all of the respect in the world to Messers Harrington, McDowell, Clarke and Lowry, this is entirely different gravy. An Irishman winning the Masters, a career grand slam to boot, and perhaps the most beloved golfer since Seve, Godspeed young (it’s all relative) Rory!” – Niall Mullen
“I always thought he’d win, but he really should have won by about five. Maybe four … or two … or one” – Adam Hirst
“He simply does not do normal, does he?” – David Howell (not that one)
“Pub just gone mad!” – Matt Cooper (of 10.22pm fame)
“Highly entertaining coverage of last few holes of Masters. Thank you. You were a little slower than my sister via WhatsApp, but you used bigger words and fewer curses, so the delay was understandable” – Sinead Quealy
Better update that super-elite list of players to have completed the career grand slam, then!
Gene Sarazen (1935)
Ben Hogan (1953)
Gary Player (1965)
Jack Nicklaus (1966)
Tiger Woods (2000)
Rory McIlroy (2025)
That is some company to keep.
A lot of cheering, hugging, crying. A psychedelic mixture of delight and relief. He deserved it. He deserved it all right. The shots into 15, 17 and 18 in the play-off … straight out of the top drawer. Eventually he runs out of people to hug, and stops to tell the gallery, with perfect comic timing: “Now I gotta go and get a green jacket!”
McIlroy has a quick sob then uncurls himself and gets up again. Then he screams into the ether. He embraces his friend Rose. He embraces his caddie. He holds his head in his hands again and stares into the distance for a moment. A mixture of sheer delight and relief. He thanks the Augusta National gentry, then heads for his wife Erica and daughter Poppy, the latter of par-three contest fame. Has there ever been a more emotional winner? It’s hard to think of one. He’s struggling to regulate his breathing, such is his emotion! This means everything. The patrons go wild. Real love. Real noise. Rory! Rory! Rory! The shout heard round the world.
Rory McIlroy is the 2025 Masters champion!
… tickles it into the cup! He holds his head in his hands and immediately crumples to his knees! He’s done it at long last!
Rose grimaces in the knowledge this could be it. McIlroy does the 360 around the four-footer. He’s got this for the Masters. And the career slam. He wastes little time, and …
… sending it wide right. He didn’t give it enough to the left, and it drifted away from the target. Rose waves his arm around, perplexed. He tidies up for par. A second chance coming up for Rory!
Rose realistically has to hole this. It’s a 15-foot downhill putt. Nick Faldo on Sky says it has a small bit of left-to-right movement on it. Left edge. Rose circles the scene to work it out for himself before drawing back his putter and …
Rory wastes no time, and sends a glorious wedge into the heart of the green. It’s a fair distance past Rose’s ball, but spins back. For a while, it looks like stopping right next to Rose, but keeps on spinning back, and eventually comes to a halt three feet from the flag. Advantage McIlroy, but that’d suddenly look a lot longer if Rose makes his birdie putt. Especially after the uncertain manner in which he went about his last crucial putt on this green a few minutes ago.
As McIlroy looks on anxiously, Rose takes aim from 157 yards. And he whips a pearler over the flag, leaving himself a fairly straight 15-footer coming back. Over to Rory, from 128 yards in the centre of the fairway.
Rose to take his second shot first. He’s down the right side of the fairway, and might have to consider one or two overhanging branches. He should be fine to shape around them. There’s space.
McIlroy is the first to arrive at the tee. Rose turns up a couple of minutes later … and he’ll hit first. He sent his tee shot against Sergio into the pine straw down the right. This time he hugs that side of the hole but remains in the fairway. His heart would have been in his mouth for a second there. Then Rory replicates his perfect drive of a few minutes ago; he’ll be hoping his second is better this time. Both men in good position.
Rose contested the last play-off at the Masters, back in 2017. Sergio Garcia beat him on the first play-off hole, No 18 … and it’s 18 where we’re heading now. Sudden death. If they’re still tied after this, then we’re off to 10. Then back to 18 if needs be. And 10 again. And 18. And so on.
That was a poor putt. Hit with no conviction at all. The contrast between McIlroy, from five feet, and Rose from 20 was night and day. The look on Rory’s face as he wandered off suggested he knows it. From the centre of the fairway with wedge in hand, as well. Such a weird round: the approaches to 15 and 17 as out-of-this-world as the mistakes on 13 and 18 were dismal. Play-offs are always difficult to predict, but you’d have to think Rose is the favourite, as he’ll surely be far happier to be here. Who’d have thought the 44-year-old veteran would make it?!
McIlroy shoots 73
… pulls a weak effort left of the cup! He taps in for bogey, and that’s a final round of 73. He trudges off to the scorer’s tent, stopping to give his wife Erica and daughter Poppy a kiss. We’re heading to a play-off!
-11: Rose, McIlroy
-9: Reed
-8: Scheffler
Rory prowls around the putt. He doesn’t waste time. He draws his putter back, and …
To his great credit, Bryson doesn’t hang about either. Two putts and it’s a par, and he’s signing for a 75. It just didn’t happen for the US Open champion today. Over to you, Rory.
Rory is fortunate that he’ll be going first. He’s not hanging around, either. No point standing around stewing. He splashes out to five feet. It didn’t need much more to be stone dead, but now he’s got one of those to win the Masters. Rose stroked his in from 20 feet along a similar path. It’s fairly straight, with just a little right to left. But before he can meet his destiny, Bryson has to putt out.
… and from 125 yards he sends his second into the bunker to the right of the green! He holed out from this bunker three years ago en route to a 64 and second spot. Now he’s got to get up and down to win, or a play-off looms!
Bryson on 18 in regulation. What he could charge Rory for that now. Over to McIlroy then …
The 2018 champion Patrick Reed finishes with par, and signs for a 69. He’ll end the week in third spot. A disappointing 75 for his playing partner Corey Conners, who never recovered from missing that tiddler on the 1st. He’s -5.
Rory McIlroy is surely just one good drive away from career grand-slam glory. And here’s that perfect drive, exactly when he needs it. Smashed down the middle, a gentle fade taking it around the corner, the ball landing in the middle of the fairway. So close to joining an elite gang of all-time greats now. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
An ignominious end to Ludvig Åberg’s week. He sends his tee shot into Lyle’s Bunker, then batters his second straight into its face. His third finds the bunker to the right of the green. He blades his next one across the green and down a swale, from where he’s unable to get up and down. A triple-bogey seven. He was dreaming of a Green Jacket 20-odd minutes ago! He finishes at -6.
Rory has to wait for an out-of-position Bryson to chip, then take two putts. Bogey, and DeChambeau drops back to -7. (He’d birdied 16.) It’s an excruciating couple of minutes for McIlroy, who prowls around anxiously. But eventually he gets his go, and makes no mistake. Birdie, and … well, let me hand over to Verne Lundquist Simon McMahon: “Please tell me WTF is going on, Scott. In your life have you ever seen a final round like this?”
-12: McIlroy (17)
-11: Rose (F)
-9: Reed (17)
-8: Scheffler (F)
Rory sends his drive down the middle of 17. Then another high draw. “Go! Aw go! Aw go! Go! Go! Go baby go!” He sounds a bit desperate. Has it gone wrong? No sir! No sir! It’s another shot of outrageous quality, from 196 yards to two feet. This final round is positively trippy. Out of this world. Golf from another planet. What a Tournament! But how will it finish? Nobody knows anything.
Scottie Scheffler pars the last and signs for a 69. He ends the week at -8, just three off the lead, without ever having his best stuff. Meanwhile on 17, a wild and wonderful eagle for Patrick Reed, who holes out from 146 yards, one bounce of the green and in. He rises to -9, and all of a sudden, that three-putt bogey from three feet on 13 feels so very costly.
Justin Rose already has a US Open to his name, of course. But that still might be the biggest putt of his life. It was a fairly straight one from the centre of the green towards the pin front left. A little right-to-left movement. Hit with great conviction. No point dying wondering. It was always dropping. He lifts his cap to acknowledge the crowd as they go wild. A clenched fist. He looks to the sky for a quick word with absent friends. What a round!
Rose shoots 66!
McIlroy finds another Georgia peach! He draws a gentle 7-iron into the back-right corner of the green. The ball doesn’t get much help from the slope, but it’s gathered towards the flag to nine feet. He’ll have a downhill look at another birdie … but he can’t make it. Meanwhile on 17, Åberg races a 40-footer ten feet past the hole, misses the one coming back, and it’s a bogey that has probably done for his chances … because on 18, Justin Rose rails a 20-footer into the cup for a valedictory birdie! Back in 32, a final round of 66, and he’s the new clubhouse leader at -11! Well that’s set a mark!
-11: Rose (F), McIlroy (16)
-9: Åberg (17)
-8: Scheffler (17)
McIlroy can’t make the eagle putt, which kinda ruins the effect a bit. “I knew it!” cries one of the patrons. But it’s a birdie that gives him sole ownership of the lead again. DeChambeau scrambles par, getting up and down from the dropzine. Meanwhile up on 18, Justin Rose is on in regulation, but facing a long birdie putt.
-11: McIlroy (15)
-10: Rose (17), Åberg (16)
-8: Scheffler (17)
-7: Im (F), Day (16), Reed (16), DeChambeau (15)
Is that the same guy who just chunked a wedge into Rae’s Creek?! Much depends on McIlroy’s ability to close the deal, but if he does, that shot will go down in Masters lore, right up there with Sarazen’s albatross and Tiger’s chip. On Sky, Paul McGinley notes that it turned 40 yards in the air. It was an absolute work of art. Given the context of what just happened, it’s a breathtaking effort.
McIlroy appears to blocked out by the pines down the left of 15. Or is he? Before he can decide what to do, DeChambeau dunks his second into the pond. Then a carpe-diem moment for Rory. He goes for it! Taking on the pond, he whip-cracks an iron around the trees from 208 yards, drawing into the heart of the green, his ball rolling to six feet. It’s not quite Gene Sarazen, but there’s another shot that will be heard all around the world! The roar itself will have reached North Carolina, for a start.
McIlroy batters his drive at 15 down the left of the fairway. It’s on the short stuff, but whether the branches of the pines on that side will affect his second shot remains to be seen. Meanwhile on 16, Åberg sends his tee shot over the flag, back-right of the green, and onto the fringe. He never looks like making the 20-foot left-to-right curler, and the par keeps him at -10. Then on 18, Justin Rose crashes his tee shot down the middle. If only he’d done that in the play-off with Sergio back in 2017, huh.
McIlroy sends his wedge at 14 past the flag, assuming the backstop on the bowl-shaped green will bring it back. But the fringe holds it up. His right-to-left curler stops one dimple short of dropping. Another shot gone. Meanwhile Bryson makes birdie to get back to -7. Up on 17, Rose chips crisply over the flag to seven feet, but he’s got a tricky downhill par putt. He spends a long time over it. To be fair, this could be his last chance for Masters glory. But he never looks like making it. A ginger prod that’s always staying wide left. Bogey as well. Look at this now!
-10: Rose (17), Åberg (15), McIlroy (14)
-8: Scheffler (16)
