AUGUSTA, Georgia — Four more swings.
That’s what Rory McIlroy told himself he needed after he made a superb pitch from just over the 16th green at Augusta National Golf Club Sunday to save a crucial par and cling to a two-stroke advantage with two holes left in the Masters.
Just four more swings. “I made one,” McIlroy said. A roomful of media types burst into laughter. McIlroy did, too.
The day was suspenseful, all the way to the end even when it shouldn’t have been, but McIlroy survived another chaotic finish and won the Masters for a second straight year.
“I don’t make it easy,” McIlroy admitted. “I used to make it easy in my 20s when I was winning by eight. It’s hard to win golf tournaments, especially here. I thought it was so difficult to win last year because it was the Masters and the Grand Slam. This year, I realized it’s just difficult to win the Masters.”
His one good swing was the tee shot at the 17th hole, not anyone’s favorite driving hole. He teed it up low to hit a nice controlled fade up the center of the fairway. With victory nearly at hand … uh-oh, he blocked his approach shot well right of the green. Fortunately, his short game was an A-plus all week and he pitched it to inside a foot for a stress-free par.
How hard is it to win a Masters when all you need is a bogey on the final hole? Well, how hard was it for Jean van de Velde to win the Open Championship with a three-shot lead on the final hole 27 years ago?
McIlroy’s tee shot at the 18th was shockingly van de Velde-ian as it sliced high and right and barreled into the thick row of trees. If they’re part of Augusta National’s so-called “cathedral of pines,” McIlroy’s drive probably rang off the bell tower.
So much for a stress-free finish. “That was the most stress I felt, walking off the 18th tee, because I didn’t know where my ball was,” McIlroy said. “It could be anywhere.”
If you don’t believe in the Luck of the Irish, even the Northern Irish, McIlroy’s closing holes might have changed your mind. His tee shot at 18 ended up in the pine straw just off the right rough on the adjacent 10th hole. He had a swing, he had a shot. He hoisted a high shot around the trees and into the front left bunker. When he splashed out of an iffy lie to 15 feet, the Masters was as good as over.
Wasn’t it? McIlroy narrowly missed holing his par putt, leaving himself only 6 inches for the win. Then, showing his sportsmanship, he marked his ball so Cameron Young could putt out. While Young was preparing, McIlroy knelt and was bent over with emotion, clearly trying to tell himself there was more to do. He was shaking, it appeared, and wiping some stray moisture from his cheeks. Would he be able to compose himself enough to even make a 6-incher?
Young holed his par putt and yes, McIlroy tapped in the winner and let out another primal scream the way he did last year when his victory clinched his career Grand Slam. But memo to self: Next time you have a tap-in to win, go ahead and finish it before the emotion explodes.
He can thank his short game and his putting for this Masters title. And some magically delicious moments straight out of a box of Lucky Charms cereal.
One came at the 15th hole, where he blocked another drive way right into the trees. He had no choice but to lay up. That left him a 108-yard shot off a downhill lie with a helping wind. McIlroy used a sand wedge and expected the wind to carry it a few extra yards. Instead, McIlroy said, the wind coming down the slope actually knocked the ball down a bit, not unusual. His ball landed just on the front edge of the green and, as the world stopped turning for a scary moment, his ball did not spin back into the pond. Why not? No one knows. “I’m thanking my lucky stars with that one,” McIlroy said. “It was pretty close to coming back into the water. Thankfully, it hung up.”
Another key moment was at the par-3 12th. McIlroy was tied for the lead with Justin Rose and decided he needed to hit a a three-quarter 9-iron. He used a tip he got from Hall of Famer Tom Watson years ago about the 12th — wait until you feel the wind from the direction it’s supposed to be blowing, then hit right away. McIlroy did that, he said, having aimed at the middle of the front bunker. He was surprised his shot drifted as much right as it did, but it turned into a stroke of brilliance, stopping six feet from the cup. He made that birdie putt to take a lead he never gave back. A little farther right or a little more wind — who knows what might have happened. Instead, it was his shot of the day.
It all led to a win, just not an easy one. “It would have been a bitter pill to swallow if I wasn’t able to get myself over the finish line after having a six-shot lead going into the weekend,” McIlroy said. “I don’t think I would have believed anyone if they said to me all you have to do is shoot even-par for the weekend and you’ll win. I definitely thought I was going to need to shoot a couple of under-par scores.”
What happened to all those other contenders? They stalled or fell back.
Young, the Players champion, appeared to be the biggest threat. He birdied the second hole, McIlroy didn’t, and two holes later Young had a two-shot lead. Young made only one more birdie on the day, however, and wasn’t a factor on the closing holes.
Justin Rose loomed large in the middle of the round. He birdied three holes in a row starting at the seventh and moved in front. But Rose made just enough mistakes to beat himself. After a perfect drive at the tough 11th hole, he gaffed an iron way right of the green, about where Larry Mize did in the 1987 playoff. Mize holed that chip to stun Greg Norman but that green has been redone and that shot is much tougher now. Rose made a bogey.
Rose began to unravel temporarily. He pulled his iron shot over the back left edge of the par-3 12th green, then chunked his chip shot, leaving it in the fringe. He got up and down for another bogey.
He made another grievous error after his best shot of a day, a zinger around the corner at the 13th hole that landed near the pin, incredibly, but rolled out 25 feet. Rose inexplicably hammered his eagle putt six feet past, then timidly missed the comebacker and took a par when he needed a birdie.
After a birdie at 15, Rose missed a birdie try at 16, hit another poor approach shot at 17 and after a nice pitch, missed a 3-footer for par. That finished him off. It was another tough way to lose after McIlroy beat him in a playoff last year.
“With a sudden-death loss, you know you got to the house, you’ve done everything it took to win,” Rose said. “Then it comes down to a flick of a coin. Whereas today, there was an oopportunity to do better so that is frustrating, for sure.”
Russell Henley worked his way into the fight but wasn’t able to make any clutch putts on the back nine and challenge McIlroy. England’s Tyrrell Hatton shot an early 66 and reached 10 under and watched the battle unfold from the clubhouse.
Sam Burns, who began the round one shot back, doubled the par-5 second hole, bogeyed the third and was forgotten. He did have a highlight video moment, though, with a crazy 60-foot birdie putt that plunged down the Daytona Speedway-like sideslope at the par-3 16th green.
Ultimately, it was only Scottie Scheffler who was left to catch McIlroy. After birdies on two of the first three holes, Scheffler didn’t make another birdie until 15 and 16. That got him to 11 under but he finished par-par and allowed McIlroy the luxury of making bogey to win.
“I knew I was going to have to do something special if I wanted to catch Rory or Cam,” Scheffler said. “I was close, just a few shots here or there. Having a six-shot lead at Augusta is never easy and losing that is obviously difficult. But he was tied for the lead to start the day Sunday and did what he needed to do.”
The player who made the most explosive move Sunday was China’s Haotong Li. It was the wrong kind of explosive day. He was four strokes back going into the final round but triple-bogeyed the 12th and made a 10 at No. 13 en route to a back-nine 44 and a score of 80.
McIlroy’s victory upgrades him in class yet again. Last year, he joined Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan as winners of the career Grand Slam. This time, he joins Nicklaus, Woods and Nick Faldo as players who won back-to-back Masters. And if you want to look ahead, McIlroy is now halfway to a second career Grand Slam — one Masters, one PGA Championship. Only Woods and Nicklaus did it twice and, by the way, they actually did it three times.
McIlroy didn’t mention that, he just hinted that he feels as if he has more major titles in his future. “I said at the start of the week here I felt like the Grand Slam was the destination and then I realized it wasn’t,” McIlroy said. “It feels like this win is just part of the journey. I still have things I want to achieve.”
His six major victories tie him with Faldo with most by a European player and the career Grand Slam arguably makes the case that McIlroy is Europe’s GOAT.
That’s fodder for sports talk, though. What really matters is that McIlroy’s parents, Jerry and Rose, were in attendance this time. They missed his breakthrough win here last year and their son had to convince them to come. They were concerned that he won last year because they weren’t here.
The history McIlroy made was irrelevant as he walked off the 18th green and spotted his father. They embraced for a long time and when they pulled away, the men had red cheeks, teary eyes and dreamy smiles. Mom got a nice hug, too, but this win was a father-son moment for the ages, at least in the hamlet of Holywood, Northern Ireland.
At the awards ceremony on the putting green, where the annual donning of the green jacket happens, the reigning champion had to say a few words. After a series of thank-yous to all the right people, he turned to his mother and father. “Mom and Dad, I owe everything to you,” he said, his eyes welling and his voice choking. “I can’t …”
He stopped, overcome with emotion. The crowd politely clapped to give him time to gather himself, which he did.
It wasn’t the first time McIlroy had to regroup on a wild Masters Sunday.
Four more swings? McIlroy made only one. But one was enough and Gerry and Rose were there to see it.
