AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s done.
It wasn’t easy. No one said it would be easy.
But it’s done.
Finally.
At long last, Rory McIlroy is a Masters champion and has become the sixth player in golf history — and the first in 25 years — to complete the career Grand Slam.
He now has a Green Jacket to go with his Claret Jug for the British Open, Wanamaker Trophy for the PGA Championship and U.S. Open trophy.
And that coveted garment came a lot harder than any other victory in McIlroy’s life.
It took surviving an absolute roller coaster of a round and a one-hole playoff with Justin Rose.
McIlroy stuffed his approach shot on 18 in the playoff to 2 feet from the flag after Rose hit his to 10 feet.
“I needed to make a good, committed swing,’’ McIlroy said, “and I made one at the right time.’’
With McIlroy facing a tap-in, Rose needed to make his to stay alive, but he missed on the right side.
That left McIlroy, who earlier had missed a 4-foot par putt on 18 in regulation that would have won it, to make his for the most important victory of his life.
When it went in, McIlroy raised his arms to the sky, dropped his putter behind him and then crumpled to the ground holding his head in his arms, trembling as he cried into his hands.
“A lot of pent-up emotion that just came out on that 18 green,’’ McIlroy said. “A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.’’
For Rose, it was a devastating heartbreak, because he’d lost to Sergio Garcia in 2017 in the last playoff played at the Masters before Sunday.
“I told him this was a historic moment and that it was pretty cool to share that moment with him, even though I wanted to be the bad guy today,’’ Rose said. “It’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.’’
The 35-year-old Northern Irishman’s harrowing, stress-saturated, gritty victory at the 89th Masters on Sunday at sun-splashed Augusta National with its fabled fairways lined 30 bodies deep, put him in the most elite company in golf.
He entered the day with a two-shot lead, was in total control early on the back nine with a four-shot lead and then inexplicably appeared to be throwing it all away.
He would lose the lead with a pitch shot into Rae’s Creek on the 13th hole and a riveting Rose rally. McIlroy trailed by one shot after the double on 13 and Rose birdies on Nos. 15 and 16.
Then he would hit a couple of the shots of his life.
First, on the par-5 15th hole, a hole he double-bogeyed in the first round, he curved a 6-iron around the trees and over the water onto the green and birdied it to tie Rose at 11-under par.
Rose would birdie the 18th hole to finish on 11-under and he was tied with McIlroy.
Then, with Rose on the practice range warming up for a possible playoff, McIlroy would then positively rip an 8-iron to within 3 feet on No. 17, made birdie and took a one-shot lead.
That left McIlroy one par on 18 away from history.
He hit his drive onto the fairway, walking confidently after it upon impact.
It left him with a wedge in his hands — a wedge he would nervously push into the right greenside bunker, leaving the swelled gallery around 18 gasping.
Determined to test everyone’s heart — not least his own — he splashed the bunker shot out to 4 feet.
Four feet for the victory, for a first career Masters, for a first major championship victory and, last but not least, the career Grand Slam completed.
And he missed it, the ball sliding past the hole on the left side, never touching the hole.
More stress as the playoff would begin.
And then it ended quickly, in one hole, and McIlroy, who’d spend the better part of the afternoon teasing himself and the rest of the golf world, was a part of history.
Finally.
It felt like the most stressful day in Masters history. But really, it was a stressful week, probably the most stressful four days of McIlroy’s life.
Tiger Woods was the last player to complete the Grand Slam, winning the 2000 British Open at St Andrews in 2000.
Jack Nicklaus won the 1966 British Open a Muirfield to complete his Slam.
Gary Player won the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive to complete his.
Ben Hogan won the 1953 British Open at Carnoustie to complete his.
Gene Sarazen won the 1935 Masters to complete his.
And now McIlroy has joined that elite club, forever securing a place inside the Champions Locker Room.
It’s been 11 long years of scrutiny for McIlroy, his last major championship coming in the 2014 PGA Championship. Eleven years of being asked why he hasn’t won another major championship.
Every time he’s come to Augusta National since 2011, McIlroy has been reminded of his epic final-round meltdown on a day he brought a four-shot lead to the first tee, shot 80 and walked off the course tied for 15th and in tears.
All of those demons were exorcised this week, the last of which was snuffed out on the most glorious Sunday afternoon of his life.
There were tears from the agony of defeat in 2011.
On Sunday, when that last putt disappeared into the cup, there were tears again. This time tears of joy on what was perhaps the most visceral 18th hole celebration in Masters history.
