It is easy to become a bit blasé about this job. Free entry to some of the world’s best sporting events often gets supplanted by first-world problems about buses and dinner options. But you have days that remind you of your luck and this year’s Masters was one of them. Along with Usain Bolt’s showboating turn in the Olympic 100m final in 2008 and Liverpool’s miracle in Istanbul in 2005, Rory McIlroy’s bloodied and brilliant triumph was among the best things I have seen in the flesh.
Of course, the 36-year-old did a lot of other things in 2025, not least taking on the beery brickbats at a rancorous Ryder Cup. Away wins are rare and McIlroy’s strength of will and depth of skill planted a cornerstone for Europe. But it was the Masters, infused by a decade of drama and a palpable burden of history, that set him apart from everyone else this year.
To recap: McIlroy had not won a major for 11 years. That goes for most people, but the difference is he is the world No2, one of the best we have produced, and that period coincided with what should have been his pomp. Sure, he had won stacks of titles, and still had four majors, but his misses had made him a golfing Sisyphus; he kept rolling that boulder but could not get it in the damn hole when it mattered. The misses from two and three feet over the final three holes at the 2024 US Open had underscored the image of a flawed genius. Brilliant, yes, but brittle too. Utterly relatable. It had been this way since he squandered a four-shot, last-day lead at the 2011 Masters.
McIlroy’s meltdown at the 2011 Masters had been part of his narrative at every edition since
ROB BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
And the Masters mattered even more than ending his drought because winning it would make him only the sixth person to complete the career grand slam. He did not shirk the meaning and how hard it would be. In a wonderfully candid remark in his pre-tournament press conference, McIlroy said: “At a certain point in someone’s life, someone doesn’t want to fall in love because they don’t want to get their heart broken. I think, instinctively as human beings, we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt.”
He could have just said he would go for it this year, but for those who think the P of Spoty demands depth, difference or entertainment, it was a special statement of intent.
He started well and then had two double bogeys in his first round to leave him seven behind the leader, Justin Rose, after day one. On day two he went round in 66 and was two behind. On day three he started with six threes, something never done before, and ended it two clear of Bryson DeChambeau.
That mattered too. DeChambeau was the man who had played a stellar bunker shot to take advantage of McIlroy’s foibles at that US Open, a victory not so much grabbed from the jaws of defeat as one that required cutting open the guts. DeChambeau irks McIlroy anyway. Would he ever get over it?
Scottie Scheffler places the green jacket on McIlroy
GETTY
The last day had journalists hastily rewriting on deadline. McIlroy’s two-shot lead disappeared within one hole. After two, he trailed. He steadied the ship and led by four after the 10th. What could go wrong? Most things. It was a Dr Jekyll and Mr Bean display and he chipped into the water on the 13th. The lead ebbed and flowed, but he was in front going down the last and then found the bunker. Still, he had a six-foot putt to end 11 years of waiting. He missed. To a play-off with Rose. This time he made no mistake. He sank to his knees and sobbed. Marathon runners rarely look so spent.
So yes, he fully deserves this latest gong, whatever you think it is worth. I doubt the other candidates have suffered quite like this. McIlroy gets flak but he is a gem who refuses to hide behind a poker face or platitudes. He is also probably the most psychoanalysed person in sport. One of six to have achieved what he has done, to be this good and this human is beyond most giants.