{"id":367319,"date":"2025-12-23T19:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T19:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367319\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T19:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T19:43:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-makes-lucky-admission-about-sensational-masters-triumph-after-best-year-of-his-golf-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367319\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy makes ‘lucky’ admission about sensational Masters triumph after ‘best year’ of his golf career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy considers himself fortunate that his Masters triumph played out exactly as it did, reflecting on an emotional moment that few in golf will ever experience.<\/p>\n

Back in April, the Northern Irishman secured the first green jacket of his career after beating Justin Rose in a tense play-off clash at Augusta.<\/p>\n

The day was a rollercoaster and McIlroy, in the aftermath, sunk to the green in tears.<\/p>\n

Now, speaking nine months on, he’s admitted the dramatic way his triumph unfolded makes him one fortunate individual.<\/p>\n

“The only thing I can think about is just how lucky I was that it happened the way it did, because I don’t think there’s a lot of other people in golf or in that’ll have the moment or the feeling that I had on that 18th green at Augusta that Sunday,” McIlroy told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman acknowledged harbouring serious reservations about whether he would ever claim the Green Jacket before his April breakthrough.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I did doubt that moment would ever happen,” he admitted. “I felt like I’d had loads of chances before.”<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy considers himself fortunate that his Masters triumph played out exactly as it did, reflecting on an emotional moment that few in golf will ever experience<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

McIlroy carried a two-stroke advantage into the final day at Augusta, briefly extending his lead to four shots before his round took a turbulent turn.<\/p>\n

A bogey at the 11th hole preceded disaster at the par-five 13th, where he found the water and walked away with a double-bogey.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old dropped another shot at the 14th but steadied himself with birdies at the 15th and 17th holes.<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

Five things to know about Rory McIlroy<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

A bogey at the final hole of regulation forced a play-off against Rose, where McIlroy converted a short birdie putt on the first extra hole to secure his fifth major championship.<\/p>\n

The victory ended an 11-year drought since his 2014 PGA Championship triumph, during which he recorded 21 top-10 finishes in majors without claiming the title.<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s emotional reaction stemmed not only from years of near-misses at Augusta but from memories stretching back to his childhood in Holywood, Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

“The reaction was years of going there and trying and failing but it was also all the years before that, when I would sit down in my family room with my dad in Holywood,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“We would watch The Masters as a boy and a father and just think about playing that tournament one day.”<\/p>\n

The presence of his caddie Harry Diamond made the moment particularly poignant, as the pair had watched Tiger Woods’s famous chip-in against Chris DiMarco at the 2005 Masters together.<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy pictured with his wife Erica Stoll and their daughter Poppy following his Masters win back in April<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s Augusta triumph made him only the sixth male golfer in history to complete the career Grand Slam and the first European to achieve the feat.<\/p>\n

The Masters glory formed part of an extraordinary 2025 campaign that McIlroy now regards as the finest of his career.<\/p>\n

Beyond Augusta, he captured the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship on the PGA Tour, while also claiming a dramatic play-off victory at the Amgen Irish Open on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n

McIlroy played a pivotal role in Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph at Bethpage Black, too, contributing 3.5 points as the visitors secured a 15-13 victory over the United States.<\/p>\n

“I could maybe say that I won more majors in 2014, but I feel this year to me [is best] because of the things that I felt like I had left to achieve in my career – to be able to win The Masters, to win an away Ryder Cup, to win my National Open,” McIlroy insisted.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old also claimed a seventh Race to Dubai title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy considers himself fortunate that his Masters triumph played out exactly as it did, reflecting on an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,44,13296,588,85,2489,3780],"class_list":{"0":"post-367319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sgg","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}