Given the obvious tension between the thing McIlroy clearly didn\u2019t want to talk about and the thing I was professionally obligated to ask, I expected McIlroy to be defensive or combative. But when the topic of the U.S. Open arose, he was surprisingly plainspoken. McIlroy talked about the disappointment of losing, the decision to leave Pinehurst without a word, the few days he\u2019d spent licking his wounds by disappearing into the ritualized chaos of New York City. And then, almost out of nowhere, he admitted something funny: He never planned to watch<\/a> that U.S. Open again. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve watched back so much of my first U.S. Open win that I can\u2019t remember the feelings I had,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cHonestly, my memories of the U.S. Open at Congressional are through the TV, so I really try to do a good job of not watching anything back.\u201d<\/p>\n McIlroy went on to say that he hoped to learn from his heartbreak at Pinehurst by reliving it himself, day after painstaking day, until he\u2019d collected enough from the memories to ensure the outcome never happened again. It was an admirable pursuit. But I was struck by the broader sentiment: If the guy who ended the weekend at Congressional in 2011 with the trophy could have his memories of golfing glory flattened into the dimensions of a television screen, how could I hope to be any different?<\/p>\n I suppose this is a long way of admitting that I never plan to watch the 2025 Masters again<\/a>. I witnessed it. I lived it. From the busy (and increasingly agonized) grounds of Augusta National, I missed a lot of it. But I know better than McIlroy knew his approach on 15 how it felt to watch McIlroy finish the golf story of a generation \u2014 and I never want to lose that feeling.<\/p>\n When my editors first approached me with the assignment to write about 2025\u2019s significance in the greater Tao of golf, I snorted. Compared to the tectonic shifts of a sovereign-funded rival golf league, the ongoing melodrama of leadership, ownership, and sweet, sweet cash among golf\u2019s playing class, and the fact that Tiger Woods had not played a single event, I felt pretty comfortable admitting that I didn\u2019t just dislike the premise, I disagreed with it. <\/p>\n But then I thought about that Sunday afternoon in Augusta, and I remembered the things in golf that really matter don\u2019t happen in a boardroom or a press release but in the memories too precious to forget. That\u2019s what my great-great-great-grandchildren will remember from 2025 \u2014 and I\u2019ll tell them the story straight from my own mind\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n Why 2025 mattered: The Masters<\/p>\n Over the course of a lifetime, you collect a lot of crap.<\/p>\n Like, for example, cliches \u2014 dozens or even hundreds of them \u2014 whispering about the magic of Sunday afternoon at Augusta National with the Masters on the line. <\/p>\n But it isn\u2019t until you\u2019re actually there, witnessing a truly magical Sunday afternoon at Augusta National, that it hits you like a semi-truck: Every last one of those cliches is absolutely and unquestionably true. <\/p>\n When people ask me about my memory from the ground in Augusta on Sunday afternoon at the 2025 Masters, the day that Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam, that\u2019s usually what I tell them.<\/p>\n 1 striking Rory McIlroy Masters scene you missed on TV<\/a><\/p>\n By:<\/p>\n
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