It was a nerve-wracking weekend for the fans of 36-year-old Rory McIlroy. On Friday he had ended the first two days with the largest lead ever at the halfway point of the tournament, a gap of six strokes. But he lost that margin completely after many, many misses and on Sunday had to temporarily relinquish the lead to first the American Cameron Young and then the Englishman Justin Rose. Both were briefly two strokes ahead.
Only on the last nine holes did McIlroy finally manage to combine attacking play with brilliantly correcting the mistakes he still made. Impressive, among other things, was the turn to the treacherous, small green of hole 12, where the wind is difficult to read. His ball landed just over the bunker, rolled more than two meters from the flag and was cashed in with a birdie. Finally, the tee shot on the last 18th hole was cringeworthy. McIlroy was then ‘defending’ a two-stroke lead over world number one Scottie Scheffler, who had already finished. But McIlroy hit his ball further left into the woods than he had ever done in his 18 years at Augusta. He was lucky that he was still able to hit the green with his next shot. The second shot landed in a bunker, but McIlroy then found the green and secured his victory with two putts.
“It’s unbelievable that it took me seventeen years to win my first green jackets, and now I’m winning two in a row,” McIlroy said afterwards. “I think my perseverance in this tournament is starting to pay off.”
McIlroy, who celebrates his birthday on May 4, last year became the sixth golfer ever to win all four majors (Masters, British Open, US Open and PGA Championship). This year he became the fourth player in the back-to-back club of golfers to defend their title. The other three are Jack Nicklaus (1965 and 1966), Nick Faldo (1989 and 1990) and Tiger Woods (2025 and 2026).
Most important player in the world
This impressive list just goes to show that McIlroy is one of the greatest golfers of all time, and right now he is the most important player in the world. Although the 29-year-old Scheffler has been the leader of the world rankings since March 2022, Scheffler is still two major titles behind McIlroy (four against six) and McIlroy also won the last two editions of the United States as the undisputed leader of the European Ryder Cup team.
McIIroy enjoyed the tournament and his status as champion in recent days. Last year, two days before the start of the tournament, he arrived at the club building for dinner with a number of club members and saw a few colleagues standing on the balcony. They were there for the Champion’s Dinner that the reigning champion gives for the former winners. McIlroy wanted to duck away and park his car out of sight because he was ashamed that he had not yet managed to get into that club. This year he was allowed to put together the dinner himself. That will be possible again next year.
Especially during the third round on Friday it became clear how freely McIlroy could play after that burden was lifted from him. Although he was unable to hit his tee shot into the fairway on any hole. All fourteen tees on the par-4 and par-5 holes ended in the tall grass or between the trees. Nevertheless, McIlroy managed to play that round seven under par, the best round of the day. Pleasure radiated from his face for almost the entire round. On Saturday and Sunday he made things difficult for himself again, but on the last nine everything came together just in time for a second green jacket.