Rory has said that the first thing he thought of when marking his ball on the green, before taking the decisive birdie putt that would give him victory in the playoff at the Masters de Augusta 2025, was the putt that Carla Bernat holed eight days earlier on that same green to win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Let’s set the scene to better understand the comment Rory McIlroy has made about Carla Bernat in the sensational documentary that the Masters de Augusta published less than 24 hours ago on its Youtube channel about the Northern Irishman’s victory.
The nod is striking and shows honesty and humility on McIlroy’s part. Several months after winning the Masters, Rory sits down with a television producer to record not a documentary, but THE documentary. Arguably the most important thing he has done in his television career. It is the video piece that will remain for posterity, not only about his Masters victory, but about his conquest of the Grand Slam Career.
McIlroy goes over every shot of that final round of the Masters one by one. It’s a delightful recap, including the tiff with DeChambeau on the 9th green to decide who should putt first. Well, when it reaches the climax of the recording, the final putt, the decisive one that gave him glory, McIlroy doesn’t invent a great story, he doesn’t talk about his family, the hours of practice, he doesn’t build his own film, no, he simply tells the truth. And it turns out the truth is that at that moment, which is nothing short of one of the peaks in the history of golf, the first image that came to his mind was of a Spaniard, Carla Bernat, and her putt at the ANWA.
First, McIlroy shows great humility by openly explaining that he watched virtually the entire live broadcast of the final day of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Second, he shows intelligence by noticing even the smallest details. Everything helps when, a few days later, you are the one who begins the conquest of Augusta. Third, he shows honesty. One of the greatest in history admits that he ‘copied’ Carla Bernat’s putt to win his first Masters and the Grand Slam.
Obviously, Rory’s and Carla’s putts were very similar, almost identical, but it says a lot about Rory that in the documentary, where it will be preserved forever, not in a bar with friends, he gives that small yet significant credit to the young golfer from Castellón.
This is how he explains it in the video:
“Before Justin hit his putt (the Englishman putted first for birdie), I marked my ball. I had watched a large part of the final round of the ANWA live and, you know, the Spanish girl who ended up winning (Carla Bernat) had a very similar putt to win. I remember seeing it and that it actually didn’t do much, maybe it broke a touch to the right, so I felt like I had seen that putt before. Yes, once Justin’s putt didn’t go in, the only thing you can do is try to stay in the moment as much as possible. I put my ball on the green, went through my routine and simply told myself: it’s inside left and make a good stroke.” The rest is history and Carla Bernat’s name is in it too. It’s much more than a nod
Here is Rory’s full documentary:
