Rory McIlroy wins the 2025 Masters in a dramatic playoff, completes the career Grand Slam

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — This story can finally be published. The one we thought may never come, the one we doubted several times would come to pass as late as Sunday afternoon. The story that seemed written in the stars for 15 years, yet always abandoned and shoved back into the drafts folder to celebrate somebody else’s crowning moment. The one Rory McIlroy has tormented himself chasing, secluding himself onto the New York City High Line, earbuds in, escaping from yet another heartbreak.

He once said he’d happily go through 100 more painful Sundays if it meant just feeling this sensation one more time. Sunday toed on the verge of the most painful of them all, but it ended with a green jacket.

He did it. He really did it. Rory McIlroy won the Masters in a playoff, completing the career Grand Slam 11 years after his last major championship, falling to the ground with his head tucked in between his arms with tears in his eyes.

McIlroy, 35, conquered the ghosts that have haunted him for all these years. The final round 80 at the 2011 Masters. The Sunday 74 in 2018. Cameron Smith stealing the Open from him at St. Andrews. Failing to catch Wyndham Clark at the 2023 U.S. Open. The two missed short putts at Pinehurst as Bryson DeChambeau snagged the U.S. Open last June, perhaps the final crushing blow to set the stage for the greatest sigh of relief in golf history.

He began the final round leading by two strokes. Fell behind within two holes. Led by as much as five. Fell back to a three-way tie. He hit the shot of his golfing life, drawing a 7-iron from 209 yards out on No. 15, up and around the Georgia pines to six feet from the pin. A birdie, and the jubilant roar of Augusta National as it thought it found its champion.

It hadn’t. Not yet. There was still so much more to come.

It was tied again after a 20-foot Justin Rose birdie on 18, the 44-year-old Englishman eliciting his own roar. On No. 17, tied with two daunting holes to go, McIlroy shouted “go, go, go!” to his ball as the 197-yard iron shot just barely reached the green and rolled to two feet. That was the one. Birdie to win the Masters, right? No. A bogey on No. 18, a 5-foot par putt drifting past the cup. Another chapter in a career defined by missed opportunities.

Until the first playoff hole on No. 18, hitting a spinny wedge shot 126 yards onto the slope that rolled back down to four feet. Rose missed his own 15-foot birdie putt, and when McIlroy finally made this 4-footer, it was over. He finally won the Masters.

All of those painful moments make what happened last Sunday all the more substantial.

A long time coming. Congratulations, Rory. #themasters pic.twitter.com/f72nOxQbfw

— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 13, 2025

McIlroy, already one of the greatest golfers of all time, can now reside in immortality. He joins the two most exclusive clubs in golf: a Masters champion and the owner of a career Grand Slam. Gene Sarazen. Ben Hogan. Jack Nicklaus. Gary Player. Tiger Woods. And, now, Rory McIlroy.

None of the others suffered the wait and anticipation to achieve it. But this week in Augusta was about the artistry McIlroy has been displaying all season. On No. 13 on Friday, he hit a 200-yard shot out of the pine straw that just barely carried the ridge above Rae’s Creek for eagle. On No. 15 on Saturday, he launched a 6-iron impossibly high into the air and over the water to stick to the green for another eagle. And on No. 7 Sunday, deep into the left-side fairway trees, he boldly said to caddie Harry Diamond, “I like it. I feel like I’ve got a shot.” Diamond disagreed, but McIlroy hit it out of the rough and through the trees to eight feet from the pin. Even McIlroy hunched over laughing at the mix of fortune and skill.

“It’s a good thing he doesn’t listen to me,” Diamond told CBS reporter Dottie Pepper.

For 68 out of 72 holes, McIlroy played some of the best golf ever played at Augusta National. Those 68 holes were played in 20-under-par, and would have matched Dustin Johnson’s Masters record 20-under at the 2020 Masters, played in the fall without fans and in softer conditions. But McIlroy had four triple bogeys, two on Thursday and two more on Sunday.

Only Craig Stadler won at the Masters with three double bogeys.

Eleven years. That’s the element that cannot be overstated. It’s tied for the longest span between majors, but none could compare to this. Because McIlroy was the closest thing to the chosen one outside of Tiger Woods. McIlroy was on Northern Irish television chipping balls into a washing machine at age 9, the same way a young Tiger went on with Mike Douglas. McIlroy won the U.S. Open at 22 and became the fourth-fastest to four majors by 25. Everything was all in front of him.

He just didn’t win the four weeks a year that matter the most. McIlroy remained one of the best players in the world for these 11 years. He won 19 times on the PGA Tour and six more overseas. He spent just one year outside the Official World Golf Ranking top 10, six of them in the top three. And he competed at major championships. No golfer in the sport’s history has compiled more major top 10s without a victory over 10 years, McIlroy finishing that high 21 times since the beginning of 2015.

Yes, much of his career may remain intertwined with what he fell short of as opposed to what he overcame. The flashbulb moments of his career are likely the missed putts and the collapses as much as those first four major championships in which he bent courses to his will.

McIlroy’s shot on No. 7 displayed his moxie. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

But now, this is the moment. This memory may be ingrained into golf fans’ brains for eternity. The man hurt so many times, the man who wanted this so bad, overcoming his demons and so many obstacles to put on the jacket it became difficult to picture him ever wearing.

His longevity may be McIlroy’s lasting trademark. His first win came in 2009 while the standard bearers were Tiger and Phil Mickelson. His biggest competitor these days, Scottie Scheffler, was 12 years old. McIlroy has been the constant, watching his peers rise and fall. Dustin Johnson lived an entire career inside these 16 years.

“It’s nice that the common denominator sometimes is me,” McIlroy said last month, “that I’ve been able to stay there. Yeah, I’m super proud of that.”

McIlroy arrived at Augusta National a tortured superstar shackled by the expectations of his own success. He was too good to not win more. He had too many more opportunities to keep failing. If McIlroy were to ever finally win a green jacket, it could never come easily. No, the entire path of Rory McIlroy’s emotional rollercoaster of a career was condensed to one 18-hole round with it all on the line.

This time, this once, McIlroy overcame them all to become the hero of the story. Rory McIlroy gets to wear the green jacket. We never thought we’d see the day.

(Top photo: Harry How / Getty Images)

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