The putt rolled, it turned ever so slightly and finally, after four feet, and after all these years, it dropped beneath the ground. As it fell, Rory McIlroy stepped up to a level of sporting greatness we assumed might never come.
And never have we assumed it more than we did on this marvellous Sunday of utter lunacy and bedlam and chokes and revivals at the Masters.
Each of those terms have been applied to McIlroy in his career. And each of them could be designated to specific chunks of a final round in which he squandered a four-shot lead.
But then that ball disappeared, ending his sudden death play-off with Justin Rose and instantly erasing so many of his labels. Killed them stone cold, reframing everything we say, so he dropped to his knees and bawled his eyes out. He could have filled Rae’s Creek with his tears.
And well he might, on this evening of absurd drama that stopped two clocks that have stalked him for what feels like a lifetime. The wait of 3,898 days for a fifth major? Ended. The quest to finally win this tournament, and thus become only the six man to complete the grand slam? Done.
The list now reads: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Rory McIlroy.
Rory McIlroy has won the Masters and become the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam
McIlroy emerged victorious from a play-off with Justin Rose after making birdie on the 18th
The Northern Irishman battled back after a tense finale and sealed it in the most dramatic fashion possible on Sunday night
And how he got there, via so many evenings of flagellation and dark nights of the soul. Via Augusta 2011, St Andrews 2021, Los Angeles 2023, Pinehurst 2024. Via so many days when we wondered if he would ever find a way of walking through the door instead of crashing his face against the frame, his scars deeper by the year.
But he got it done. And he did it in a quintessentially McIlroy way, which is to say he made an absolute meal out of it, until he beat Rose on the first extra hole.
It is Rose’s misfortune that he collided with McIlroy’s story because the Englishman, 44 and counting, played superbly. His 66 to reach 11 under par made a nonsense of our collective view that this was a showdown between McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau.
That was done by the turn; what followed on the run for home was calamity and quality and, arguably, the greatest Masters Sunday of them all. Going to the very end, we might note that McIlroy won this tournament with a putt from the same distance with which he blew the US Open last summer.
But going to the beginning, it was all about his rivalry with the man who beat him that day.
Cataloguing the sheer madness of how that went is no easy task. We should commence with DeChambeau’s tardy arrival to the tee box, a full 10 minutes after McIlroy had strode with the coldest of stares through the high-rollers permitted in the vicinity of the clubhouse. Outstretched hands were ignored.
When DeChambeau eventually came through, he bumped a dozen fists and bounced off his toes like a boxer. What was Rose’s demeanour when he passed by a good while earlier? Who knows? Who cares? Our first error.
Because all eyes were on the front and the first signs of chaos on a day utterly littered with it.
The man of the moment was given his green jacket by 2024 champion Scottie Scheffler
From the jaws of victory McIlroy seemed to clutch defeat with a nightmare on the 13th hole
But the drama was not over and he missed a six-foot putt for par on the last to force a play-off
It is Rose’s misfortune that his magical round of 66 collided with McIlroy’s story at Augusta
Wonderful chaos.
That started with the opening drives – McIlroy went right and into sand and DeChambeau headed left into the trees. After they each pitched out to a similar spot short of the green they diverged again when McIlroy caught the wrong side of the slop on his chip and three-putted for a double. DeChambeau got away with par and joined him on 10 under par, quarter of an hour after trailing by two.
The par-five second brought more madness. McIlroy had again found sand off the tee and toiled to a par; DeChambeau soon marked his card for a birdie and was now ahead. The choke chatter was starting up.
And maybe that was appropriate.
But then came the next twist. McIlroy finally found a fairway at the third, a 333-yard corker, and pitched a delicate wedge to set up a nine-foot birdie. At 11 under he had stability.
For DeChambeau, this was the beginning of his end. His short irons had been an issue all week and here he left his 105-yard approach a full 23 feet away. The American three-putted his way back down to 10 under.
A word on his putting at this stage. While McIlroy had spent Saturday night watching Bridgerton, DeChambeau left his rental house for a walk to clear his head and stumbled across a group of neighbours having a putting contest in their garden. He joined them for an hour.
Alas, the extra practise didn’t pay off – DeChambeau three-putted again for bogey on the par-three fourth and McIlroy capitalised with his first statement move of the day by muscling his four iron off the tee to 10 feet. His lead would jump to three.
McIlroy made straight for his family after sinking the putt and shared an emotional embrace with his wife, Erica
Rose set the tone in the play-off with a brilliant approach to the hole but McIlroy went one better
Bryson DeChambeau’s challenge withered away as the afternoon progressed finishing on 75 for the round, four short of McIlroy and Rose
From there, a degree of calm followed with both men taking four straight pars, before McIlroy birdied the ninth. At 13 under, he had four shots on DeChambeau as they turned for the back nine.
For some, this is when the starter’s pistol fires; for all, this is when it dawned that the race was no longer between two horses.
Step forward Rose. A run of five birdies in seven holes from the seventh had hurled him to 10 under, one ahead of DeChambeau, who was joined by Ludvig Aberg, the Swedish prodigy.
But still all eyes were on McIlroy. And the 10th. That place where he unravelled so brutally as a young charger in 2011. This time, he flew a 310-yard drive to the middle of the fairway and went on to birdie from 15 feet.
Entering Amen Corner, McIlroy possibly uttered a small prayer when he chopped his way out the trees at 11 and skidded towards the greenside lake. Another yard and it would have gone in, so the subsequent bogey after a duffed chip maybe stung less. Or perhaps that was down to what happened to his playing partner – DeChambeau went into the water and double bogeyed.
At seven under, the US Open champion was out of it; at 13 under, the man he beat at Pinehurst was four ahead of Aberg and Rose, who finally slipped at 14 after driving behind the pines.
With even a vaguely calm mind, it was McIlroy’s to lose, we said. A sure thing. But we can be foolish. So can McIlroy.
Onto the 13th and the carnage – McIlroy sensibly laid up short of the creek of the par five instead of going for the dazzle of an eagle hunt, but then chipped into the water.
After laying up short of the creek, he somehow managed to chip into the water on the 13th
At last after setback after setback, McIlroy secured his piece of history and finally ended his wait
McIlroy capped off a marvellous Sunday of utter lunacy and bedlam and chokes and revivals with the best putt he’ll ever sink
It was his second double of the round, fourth of the tournament, and he rolled it into a bogey at the 14th. At 10 under, he had seemingly blown it. One for the Guinness books, especially with Aberg on the same mark and Rose, that forgotten genius, immediately sinking back-to-back birdies at 16 and 17.
He was the new leader. And then he wasn’t – tree trouble at the 17th sent him back into a three-way tie.
McIlroy knows better than anyone how quickly such stumbles can happen here, but then he stepped up to his second at the par five 15th and fired to eagle range. The putt was missed but the birdie had his nose in front until Rose rolled in from 20 foot on the last hole just minutes later.
McIlroy’s response to such wild scenes? He hit his second shot at the 17th to two feet. Bang. Birdie. The lead. All he had to do was hold it together on the 18th and from the fairway, he was halfway there, only to find yet more sand and then miss a six-foot putt. The clumsy oaf. The choker. The bottler. The man who will never win the damned thing.
So off they went to the play-off. To the moment. The moment for McIlroy to join the greats or the moment for Rose to win this tournament after twice finishing second. Once in a play-off.
Rose set the challenge with an approach to 15 feet. McIlroy went closer. So close to greatness that he could touch it. So close that he finally did.
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