The 2025 Masters was truly one for the record books. From start to finish, patrons in attendance and viewers around the globe were treated to dramatic twists and turns in what ultimately resulted in one of the greatest triumphs in golf.
Rory McIlroy, a man long tormented by his shortcomings at Augusta National and major championships, finally conquered the course, the feat and most importantly himself to complete the career grand slam in his 11th try.
It started like so many of McIlroy’s trips to the Masters with Thursday disappointment. After being doomed by one slow start after another in Augusta, Georgia, (one first round in the 60s across his last 12 Masters starts coming in), McIlroy got out to a hot start, 4 under thru 14, and seemed poised to assert that this year was actually different. And then, the implosion.
He chipped into the water from behind the 15th green, leading to a double bogey, then compounded that with another double bogey on No. 17, erasing 14 holes of hard work in the span of three. After finishing his round at even par, McIlroy was largely written off. He sat seven strokes behind Justin Rose, who was trying to make his own bit of history at Augusta National.
Rose’s 65 on Thursday gave him a fifth 18-hole lead at the Masters, breaking a tie with Jack Nicklaus for the most first-round leads ever compiled at the tournament. Despite those hot starts, Rose had never captured the green jacket that has eluded so many, his most bitter defeat coming in a 2017 playoff to Sergio Garcia — the last time extra holes were played in Augusta.
Making his 20th start, Rose was determined to change the course of his Masters career. He maintained his lead through Friday, though it had been trimmed to just one by a surging Bryson DeChambeau. The boisterous LIV Golf star has become one of the game’s most popular (and polarizing) figures over the last year, taking down McIlroy at Pinehurst No. 2 for his second U.S. Open title last summer, but he too had a checkered past at Augusta National.
Scoffing at the difficulty of the course as a youngster, DeChambeau had been humbled at the Masters for much of his career. His 2024 trip was a bit of a breakthrough with a T6, but he did so mimicking Rose with an opening 65 that faded as Scottie Scheffler stampeded by him to claim a second green jacket in three years.
Improbably, right behind DeChambeau on Friday was a surging McIlroy, who posted the best round of the day with a 66 that sent roars cascading across Augusta National. He bounced back from his late Thursday disappointment to scream up the leaderboard with a bogey-free effort headlined by an early “shot of the tournament,” a 4 iron from the pine straw on the 13th to set up an eagle. (Forty-eight hours later, it may no longer stand as one of his top five shots of the week.)
Scheffler, for his part, was right in the mix after 36 holes seeking to join his own ultra-exclusive list with back-to-back green jackets and three in a four-year span. Sitting just three behind Rose at 5 under, Scheffler lurked as the most accomplished threat on a leaderboard headlined by a who’s who of the “best to never win the Masters” list. However, the typically steady ball-striker struggled with consistency on Saturday to the point that a Sunday 69 was enough for a fourth-place finish but hardly capable of getting the job done.
Amongst the pressure and intensity, a secondary storyline that could only happen at the Masters emerged as two legends in their mid-60s fought to make the cut. Fred Couples, 65, delivered the best shot of Thursday with an eagle from 191 yards at No. 14, pushing him to a 71 that put him T11 after the first round. Bernhard Langer, 67, announced prior to the tournament it would be his last trek around Augusta National; the two-time Masters champion and arguably the greatest PGA Tour Champions golfer to ever play, decided to call it a career at Augusta National after 41 visits. He and Couples entered to their final holes Friday on the cut line only to back up outside of it while missing the weekend. Still, the legends delivered a reminder that the magic of past champions can be conjured any time at Augusta National, delivering a reprieve from the gripping competition and intrigue to a tournament that appeared wrought for history.
As the weekend arrived, an immense leaderboard emerged, and it somehow improved on Moving Day. McIlroy surged to the top with another 66, producing another iconic iron shot on a par 5, this time a 6 iron on the 15th that dropped in from the heavens to set up an eagle.
Completing that hole put McIlroy up four shots on the field and five clear of DeChambeau, who quickly produced an answer — in typically boisterous Bryson style. Birdies on the 15th and 16th sent roars up the hill to Rory, and they reached a crescendo with a 48-footer on the 18th. Out of nowhere, DeChambeau trimmed McIlroy’s lead to a pair, cemented himself into a final Sunday pairing and celebrated by high-fiving seemingly every patron in attendance on his way back to the clubhouse.
The stage was set for one of the greatest final pairings in Masters history. The storylines were so thick it was impossible to wipe them away: Rory’s grand slam chase, a rematch from Bryson’s U.S. Open win (this time head to head), both players trying to finally conquer a Masters Sunday, and yes, PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf. Even if the latter went relatively unspoken, it lingered, as did a stylistic battle between a 35-year-old traditionalist hardened by more than a decade of close calls and a 31-year-old social media sensation who prepared for his final 18 holes by hitting range balls deep into the Augusta night.
With DeChambeau two clear of Corey Conners in third, the expectation was that the green jacket would be settled in that final pairing duel. Who would have the guile or fortitude to catch up to either of these behemoths given all that was on the line?
No one had made a significant move on the leaders by the time they teed off, which meant the coast was clear for the head-to-head showdown predetermined to be “rowdy” and “electric” to live up to its hype.
Shockingly, it did not. Perhaps we should have known that shenanigans were at play Sunday when foreboding stat was shared by Justin Ray: McIlroy and DeChambeau stood the first Masters final pairing of multi-time major winners since Greg Norman and Nick Faldo in 1996.
Nerves were the story of Sunday, a fitting theme for a leaderboard that — in the early going — did not feature a past green jacket winner firmly in the hunt.
The first four holes from that final pairing still don’t seem real. McIlroy’s two-shot lead was gone by the time they stepped on the 2nd tee following a disastrous and incomprehensible double bogey. When they arrived at the 3rd, it was suddenly DeChambeau one ahead with McIlroy in an apparent tailspin.
Suddenly, everything flipped. McIlroy got up-and-down for birdie from just short of the green, while DeChambeau’s choice to lay back off the tee backfired; he couldn’t get it close on approach and three-putted for bogey. Another two-shot swing on the 4th in McIlroy’s favor put him not just back in front but three clear of DeChambeau — better than he started the day.
Pars were traded across the next four holes, but they were anything but ordinary. McIlroy authored two outrageous escapes from the trees on Nos. 5 and 7 with his shot on the latter being one of the most preposterous attempts (much less executions) in Masters history.
They arrived at the 9th with McIlroy still three in front of DeChambeau, who remained alone in second place. Both hit great drives and approaches to set up makable looks at birdie, but after Rory applied the pressure draining a putt from just outside Bryson’s ball, DeChambeau failed to answer.
Fourteen years after McIlroy stepped on the 10th tee as a 21-year-old with a four-shot lead only to hook a tee shot left into the cabins — sparking one of the all-time Masters collapses (8-over 80) — he arrived at the same spot in the same situation. This time, he birdied No. 10. It took until he reached No. 13 or the meltdown to begin.
The birdie on the 10th came with a club drop from the fairway that caused gasps from patrons through the grounds and surely viewers at home — until the ball landed safely and securely underneath the hole. McIlroy remained four in front, but suddenly, it was no longer DeChambeau he was battling as he bowed out with an implosion of his own headlined by water ball on No. 11 that led to double bogey.
Instead, it was Rose — the 18- and 36-hole leader — who had suddenly risen after a Saturday 75 that dropped him seven off the pace. He got back to 7 under at the turn before going birdie-birdie-birdie on Amen Corner to rocket his way into solo second.
All McIlroy had to do was land the plane. He bogeyed the 11th after nearly running his approach into the water and made par on the 12th, getting through the hardest portion of Amen Corner with a three-shot lead still intact as six holes remained.
McIlroy had dominated No. 13 all week, going 4 under on the hole across the first three rounds by pumping driver around the corner and attacking the green in two. Naturally, he went the conservative route Sunday, attempting to play “smart” golf. In this case, playing smart was playing weak; Rory did not lean on his strength.
A double bogey ensued after a hideous 87-yard wedge shot missed its target by 25 yards and found Rae’s Creek. This as Rose completed a birdie-birdie stretch on Nos. 15 and 16, arriving on the 17th tee tied for the lead.
When the leaderboards switched, gasps could be heard throughout Augusta National. Patrons respected Rose; they desired McIlroy.
Ludvig Åberg, the 2024 runner-up, briefly joined the duo at the 10 under lead during this stretch. However, the young Swede scored bogey and triple bogey on his final two holes, his seemingly unflappable exterior finally cracking once his name hit the top of the leaderboard.
Neither McIlroy nor Rose were not done producing fireworks. Rory followed his Saturday 6 iron on No. 15 up with an even better 7 iron from a tougher location, sweeping it in to set up what figured to be another eagle that would, finally, put the Masters to rest.
But nothing could come easy at the 2025 Masters, particularly for Rory. He miss the eagle putt, taking his lead to just one as Rose, on the 18th green, poured in a 20-footer to post 11 under and provide McIlroy a marker — the clubhouse lead he needed to surpass.
Rory slid one arm into the green jacket once again with a birdie on the 17th and a perfect drive up the 18th, but the golf gods weren’t done tormenting him and his supporters. His approach from 125 yards found the right greenside bunker. That happened to be the site of his greatest Masters moment to this point — a hole-out in 2022 that led to a runner-up finish — but three years later, he was unable to get up-and-down for par despite a makable putt.
The Masters entered a sudden death playoff for the first time in eight years, the last coming in 2017 when Rose fell to Sergio Garcia.
Back to the 18th tee box they went. During a week in which McIlroy produced five or six of the best iron shots in his career, he conjured up one more with a gap wedge that spun perfectly off the ridge to inside 4 feet. Rose had previously applied a modicum pressure by nearly dunking his approach in the hole on the fly but sat nearly three times further away from the hole. After Rose’s putt slid by, McIlroy’s moment finally arrived. He sank his birdie and crumpled to the green while sobbing, freed from the weight of history that laid so heavy on his shoulders for a decade.
McIlroy’s victory tied a bow of historic achievement on the career of the greatest golfer of his generation, the best-ever to hail from Europe and a man whose successes and failures have been laid bare for the masses in this digital age.
Suddenly, unchained from his burden, Rory may well go on a second run with more majors being added to his Hall of Fame resume.
Rose nearly completed a historic achievement of his own. No one had won their first Masters in their 20th attempt, and despite experiencing so many disappointing finishes at Augusta National, it’s hard for this one to feel like a true failure. His 66 on Sunday was tied for the best round on the course. His closing eight holes were absolutely electric — six birdies, two bogeys — as he wasn’t concerned with playing it safe but rather went for broke trying to win the elusive green jacket.
McIlroy deserved that kind of push to win. Perhaps he needed it. There was no scenario were gliding through the 18th and strolling into Butler Cabin was the way his Masters story would end.
Rose did what DeChambeau could not in the final pairing, perhaps its own story for another day.
Great champions are remembered fondly at the Masters, but those who have fallen short are not soon forgotten. For every Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and (now) Rory McIlroy there are Greg Norman, Lee Trevino or Ernie Els.
Rarely have any been involved in 72 holes that played out like these, a tournament that will be discussed as long as golf is played at Augusta National. Not simply because of the history that was made or the man that became champion, but the way 73 holes of pristine golf transpired across four picture-perfect days.
The 2025 Masters was indeed a masterpiece.