Rory McIlroy has entered golf's history books as a career grand slam winner after triumphing at the 2025 Masters, and he paid tribute to his best friend and longtime caddie Harry Diamond after finally sealing the green jacket.
Diamond has been on McIlroy's bag since 2017 and has come under plenty of criticism through the years as his fellow Northern Irishman continued to miss out on Major wins.
McIlroy has stuck up for his looper plenty of times in the past and has never appeared to have even considered replacing him with a more experienced caddie - a decision that more than paid off at Augusta where the pair found themselves standing on the 18th green holding the Masters trophy.
After more than seven years striding the fairways together, McIlroy and Diamond finally got to taste Major glory - and the World No.2 could not have heaped more praise on his best friend and 'big brother' after tapping in his winning putt on Sunday evening in Augusta.
"I've known Harry since I was seven years old," McIlroy told the media through tears.
"I met him on the putting green at Holywood Golf Club. We've had so many good times together. He's been like a big brother to me the whole way through my life.
"To be able to share this with him after all the close calls that we've had, all the crap that he's had to take from people that don't know anything about the game, yeah, this one is just as much his as it is mine. He's a massive part of what I do, and I couldn't think of anyone better to share it with than him."
"This is as much his as it is mine"Emotional Rory McIlroy on caddie and best mate Harry Diamond after winning #TheMasters2025 pic.twitter.com/h0iRK03mmyApril 14, 2025
The now five-time Major champion missed a short putt on the 72nd hole to win The Masters and somehow managed to get himself together to birdie 18 and win the playoff.
After standing on the 11th tee with a four-stroke cushion, he inexplicably dropped four strokes over his next four holes to lose the lead and then missed his chance on 18.
How did he manage to get himself together to go and win the playoff? That's where Diamond came in.
"After scoring, Harry and I were walking to the golf cart to bring us back to the 18th tee, and he said to me, "Well, Pal, we would have taken this on Monday morning." I'm like, "Yeah, absolutely we would have," McIlroy said.
"That was an easy reset. He basically said to me, "look, you would have given your right arm to be in a playoff at the start of the week." So that sort of reframed it a little bit for me.
"Yeah, again, I just kept telling myself, just make the same swing you made in regulation. And I hit a great drive up there, and yeah, the rest is history."
