Tears as Rory McIlroy shakes Masters burden – now watch the floodgates open
Rory McIlroy's emotional win at The Masters could be just the start.
Rory McIlroy secured his place among golfing immortals at Augusta National on Sunday by winning The Masters to complete the career grand slam and join five others in the sport's most exclusive club – yet his victory meant even more than gaining access to the hall of heroes.
The tears on the 18th green, a stage that has hosted so many of golf's great moments, said it all. It was not just Rory; there was not a dry eye in the house after he sunk a four-footer to beat Justin Rose in a stomach-twisting play-off.
Nick Faldo and the rest of the Sky commentary team could barely get a word out – and we all felt the same after one of the most absorbing, emotionally draining rounds in majors history.
"What are we all going to talk about next year?" The line McIlroy opened his press conference with, said in jest, is a fair reflection of the narrative that has dominated the build-up to the tournament for more than a decade.
One question has weighed heaviest on him since he won the third of the four majors at The Open in 2014 and threatened to define his career: Would Rory ever win The Masters and complete the grand slam?
The build-up noise this year was all too familiar – the course suits his game, he is the world's form player, he's changed his approach, this could be the year. We have heard it all before, and in previous years, the hope has always preceded heartbreak.
There were many times over the weekend when it seemed 2025 was following the same script, but the most important distance in golf is, famously, the five or six inches between a player's ears, and this was a victory built on pure mental resilience.
McIlroy was far from perfect. The chip that raced off the 15th green into the water on Thursday, the pulled approach into the creek at 13 on Sunday, and the approach into the bunker on 18, when all he needed was a par, were among the worst shots of his career.
But whenever it started to feel as though the green jacket might be slipping from his grasp, as though he might be about to suffer heartbreak beyond even 2011 implosion levels, the 35-year-old peeled himself back off the canvas and got back into the fight.
Indeed, for all the mistakes, Rory has won The Masters with a final round highlight reel that, perhaps, betters any that has come before. The recovery over the trees on seven, the iron shot bent around the pines on 15, and the approach on 17 now have their place in Augusta folklore.
Arguably the most important shot came in the play-off on 18, when he floated a wedge inside Rose's ball and to four feet out to set up the putt that won The Masters and completed the grand slam.
"Yeah, look, it was a heavy weight to carry, and thankfully now I don’t have to carry it and it frees me up," he replied when asked about how difficult it has been coming back to Augusta year after year in search of redemption.
The burden he, by his own admission, has carried for 11 years is now lifted, and you can't help thinking that is going to be bad news for the rest of the field.
Often at majors, it has been Rory beating himself. The talent has never been in question, but the mentality was the problem. He wanted it too much.
Now, his place in golf history is cemented. He has answered the big question. That pressure is off, that weight has lifted – and the floodgates may now open.
Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw are among the great champions to have gone more than a decade between major wins.
Neither Woods nor Crenshaw were able to follow up those victories with more major success, but McIlroy's situation is different.
He is in his prime and won't have to wait 11 more years to reel in another big one. There are three more this year he will have his eye on now.
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