Rory McIlroy (-13) couldn’t have won this Masters in any other way than by missing the fairway on the 18th hole. There is no greater tribute to his strategy or to his way of understanding and executing golf this week. He also had to win suffering, stumbling and producing glorious shots. There is no greater tribute to Rorylandia.
McIlroy really won his second Green Jacket with a final round of 71, well before reaching the 18th. Specifically, at the iconic corner of Augusta National far more famous for its tragedies than its glories: the Amen Corner. It was first christened thus by the journalist Herbert Warren Wind (he couldn’t have had a more apt surname) in his account of Arnold Palmer’s victory in 1958.
The Amen Corner, canonically defined, comprises the green of the 11th, all of the 12th and the tee of the 13th. Well, Rory holed a crucial and very delicate three-metre par putt at the 11th, played a sensational shot at the 12th, holing the roughly two-metre birdie putt as well, and unleashed a fabulous 350-yard tee shot on the 13th to set up a birdie that sounded pretty definitive. Almost poetically, McIlroy slipped an arm into the jacket sleeve in the same place that caused him so much misery last year with a double bogey. This is Rorylandia. The best and the worst.
Because Rory suffered more than anyone this Sunday. Again. He got off to a slow start. With two pars at the 1st and 2nd he allowed Cameron Young to be the first to move into a solo lead. He responded with a birdie at the 3rd, but immediately followed with a double bogey. Again, yes, of course, Rorylandia. In the last 30 years of the Masters the champion has made a double bogey on the final round on only four occasions. Well, half of those belong to the Northern Irishman. Two in 2025 and one in 2026. The other two in that club are Scottie Scheffler at the 18th in 2022, with the Masters already won, and Trevor Immelman in 2008. That’s Rory.
McIlroy reached -9 after the 6th. In barely 24 holes he had gone from enjoying a six-shot lead to having three players ahead (Young, Rose and Henley) and being tied with two others (Scheffler and Hatton). It felt as if Rory was falling apart. It’s true that the double bogey at the 4th was like a macabre joke. He missed the tee shot, but his recovery approach was delightful and brushed the hole. His par putt again glanced the cup and his bogey putt left him tied.
From the 7th, Rory began to find his rhythm. Picture-book birdie. He added another at the 8th and played the Amen Corner with surgical precision. It seemed the Masters was being defined. Justin Rose, who had gone to the top with a one-shot lead, began to falter, precisely in the Amen Corner. My goodness how heavy the burden of leading the Masters is, even for someone as seasoned as Rose. Henley showed up, but did not finish the job. He lacked the killer instinct on the greens, with good birdie opportunities at 14, 15 and 17 that went to waste. Cameron Young, the other leader at the start of the day, ended up finishing with nine consecutive pars. And Scottie Scheffler (-11), what about him
Well, the World No. 1 once again acted like it and became McIlroy’s great rival down the stretch. His birdie at the 15th, after missing the tee and his second shot bouncing off a tree to advance barely 60 metres, would have been museum-worthy had he taken the jacket. He made another at the 16th and suddenly was two behind Rory with two holes remaining. He played a flawless 17th and the birdie putt simply refused to drop. He hit it fantastically and it kissed the left edge. Oh, had he made it…
Scheffler, without his best game all week beyond that great Saturday, ultimately finished one shot back, the centimetre missing from his 17th putt that would have forced a playoff. That is his greatness. Solo second.
Everything seemed set to celebrate McIlroy’s second victory, but he still had to suffer. It wouldn’t be Rory otherwise. At the 15th, his third shot was just over a metre from going into the water; at the 16th he executed a wonderful recovery from the back of the green. It recalled Tiger Woods’ famous 2005 chip, although McIlroy chose to putt. He didn’t hole it, but left it close. He also had to recover for par at the 17th and then missed the tee shot on the 18th to seal the win with a bogey. Even the luck that left it perfectly positioned on the right is down to his strategy, since it was so long it cleared all the trees.
We’ll see if Rory reaches five or six Green Jackets, as Fred Couples predicted. For now he has two. On the day the legend of the Amen Corner and Rory’s legend merged
