Gary Player desperately wanted to complete the career Grand Slam. So one night, over 60 years ago, he wandered into a church, seeking help from a higher power.
However, he didn’t ask for a victory.
“I prayed for patience, courage and to enjoy adversity,” Player said 50 years after achieving the feat at the 1965 U.S. Open.
For the last 11 years, Rory McIlroy needed all of those traits. He didn’t want to wait this long. At times, the journey wasn’t fun.
But the moment has finally come. McIlroy won the Masters, becoming the sixth player to attain the career Grand Slam by overcoming the demons that have followed him in Augusta for more than a decade. Of the six names, he exceeded the longest time to complete the Grand Slam by eight years.
“This is my 17th time here,” McIlroy said afterward in Butler Cabin, “and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time. I think the last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that, yeah, I’m sort of wondering what we're all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters.”
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Self-resiliency in his pursuit of the green jacket was pivotal for McIlroy both this week and since his final-round 80 at Augusta National in 2011.
Winless in majors since the 2014 PGA Championship, this appeared to be McIlroy’s best chance at the Masters in years. He entered the year’s first major as the sport’s hottest player, winning at the Players Championship and Pebble Beach.
Seven back of the lead after Day 1 in Augusta, McIlroy led Bryson DeChambeau by two strokes to begin the final round. The first nine saw three two-shot swings in the first four holes. Making the turn, though, McIlroy led by four strokes. DeChambeau ended up faltering to T5 with a final-round 75.
Then, things began to unravel for McIlroy.
On the par-5 13th, the 35-year-old Northern Irishman dumped his third shot in Rae’s Creek en route to a double bogey (his fourth of the tournament, the most ever for a Masters champion). A hole later, he bogeyed.
At the same time, 36-hole leader Justin Rose was charging with birdies on Nos. 11-13. The 44-year-old Englishman bogeyed No. 14 but jumped back to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16.
Briefly, it was a three-way tie between Rose, McIlroy and Ludvig Åberg. The 25-year-old Swede, however, couldn’t hold on, failing to get out of a fairway bunker on his 72nd hole.
McIlroy took the lead again with a birdie on the par-5 15th. Rose, though, re-tied it with an emphatic 20-foot birdie putt on the last, capping a final-round 6-under 66.
Justin Rose sets the Clubhouse lead with a Sunday 66. #themasters pic.twitter.com/YupKW0xHyp
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 13, 2025
Augusta National’s closing stretch has yielded an abundance of indelible moments en route to victory. Jack Nicklaus in 1986. Larry Mize’s 140-foot chip in ‘87. Sandy Lyle from the fairway bunker in ‘88. Tiger Woods’s chip in 2005.
If McIlroy was going to finish the job, what would his moment look like?
Most would have thought it was his birdie on the par-4 17th, hitting his approach to 2 feet. But it was a typical McIlroy rollercoaster. On the 72nd hole, he hit his approach in the greenside bunker and failed to get up-and-down for a winning par, missing a 6-footer.
So the Masters’s first playoff since 2017, in which Rose lost to Sergio Garcia, ensued.
The cinema of the 73rd hole. #themasters pic.twitter.com/wJgncWWhOr
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 13, 2025
Playing the closing par-4, both hit superb tee shots. Then, Rose hit his approach to 15 feet, but McIlroy’s settled 4 feet from the cup.
Rose failed to make his birdie putt. McIlroy made his.
In the fading Augusta sun, he dropped to his knees with his hands over his face.
McIlroy was a Masters champion—winning the tournament that always seemed to elude him. And capturing the career Grand Slam on his 11th try, his name is forever etched next to golf royalty: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Player, Nicklaus and Woods.
“When it’s all said and done, I said to (McIlroy), ‘Listen, I was glad I was here on this green to witness you win the career Grand Slam,’” Rose said in defeat. “That’s such a cool, momentous moment in the game of golf.”
And it took everything Player once prayed for.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Luck of the Irish: Rory McIlroy Finally Achieves Grand Slam With Masters Win.
