AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and now Rory McIlroy.
The Northern Irishman emerged from a tight pack of contenders to win the 90th Masters Tournament on Sunday, joining the trio of golf icons as the only players in history to conquer Augusta National in back-to-back years.
McIlroy said earlier this week that winning one Masters would make it easier to win a second, and he dug deep into that belief on Sunday to rally from a two-shot deficit on the front nine to post a 1-under-par round of 71 for the winning score of 12-under 276 — one better than Scottie Scheffler.
“I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the (career) grand slam, and then this year I realized it’s just really difficult to win the Masters,” McIlroy said with a laugh. “I tried to convince myself it was both.”
McIlroy’s sixth career major also tied Faldo for the most by a European in the modern era and are tied for 12th-most all-time by any player.
Cameron Young, Russell Henley and England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Justin Rose finished at 10 under to tie for third place. For Henley, his best career finish in a major came on his 37th birthday.
McIlroy began the final round tied for the 54-hole lead at 11 under with Young, who birdied the second hole to reach 12 under and take the outright lead. It appeared McIlroy’s repeat quest might unravel when he went 3 over on the two par-3s on the front nine to fall to 9 under for the tournament.
Suddenly, McIlroy’s name was looking up on the leaderboard at Young and Rose, who reached 12 under with four birdies in a five-hole stretch through No. 9. Scheffler was also making a run several holes ahead, and Henley reached 10 under through eight holes.
That’s when McIlroy kicked it back into gear for the first time since closing with six birdies over his final seven holes on Friday. A birdie on the seventh hole got McIlroy back to double digits under par, and he pulled within one shot of the lead with another on the par-5 eighth.
While Scheffler’s rally stalled for a long stretch with 11 consecutive pars and Rose and Young struggled to hole putts on the back nine, McIlroy kept ratcheting up the pressure. He birdied the 12th and 13th holes to go 2 under through “Amen Corner” and build a two-shot lead.
McIlroy’s birdie on the 12th was one of only four all day to the tough traditional Sunday pin placement on the iconic par-3 that played to an average of 3.26 shots in the final round.
“Historically, I think I’ve played the 12th hole pretty well,” he said. “It’s not a hole that you’re trying to birdie. It was a bonus that I did birdie it.”
Scheffler kept it interesting with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to get to 11 under. Another birdie attempt on 17 stayed on the lip of the cup, and Scheffler parred out to post a 4-under round of 68 with McIlroy on the course with three holes to play.
The two-shot cushion proved helpful for McIlroy when he pushed his drive on the 18th hole well right into the trees. He was able to punch the ball forward into a greenside bunker and put it on the putting surface with his third shot.
From there, McIlroy easily converted the two-putt bogey and became the fourth player in history to successfully defend at the Masters.
“I thought, if I could get to 14-under, I thought that everyone else would struggle to get to that score,” he said. “So, that was the number I had in my head. I got to 13 on the last and had that two-shot cushion.”
After setting a Masters record with a six-shot lead after 36 holes, McIlroy played the final 36 holes in even par. That brought a host of players back into the mix, with at least four different players leading at some point during the final round.
McIlroy admitted he kept a close eye on the leaderboard after falling back to 9 under to know where he stood in the tournament.
“I obviously did the bulk of my work on Thursday and Friday. 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,” he said. “I definitely thought I was going to need to go out there and at least shoot a couple of under-par scores.”
Scheffler became the first player since at least 1942 to go bogey-free over the weekend at the Masters, according to CBS, but ultimately came one shot short of forcing a playoff that would have given him a chance at a third green jacket. Scheffler was 12 shots off the lead after posting his second-worst score at August National with a 74 on Friday before posting 65-68 over the weekend.
“Overall I’m not going to hold too many regrets, but yeah, definitely a bit disappointed now,” Scheffler said when asked if there was a specific shot from Sunday he wishes he had back. “But I started the weekend 12 shots back and ended up only one shot back. If I am going to blame anything, I should probably blame the first two rounds before I start looking at stuff from the last couple.”
With six majors now on his resume, McIlroy said it is “cool” to be in the conversation as to who the best European golfer of all time is. And while he still declined to provide specifics, he insists the motivation is strong to continue to add on to his legacy.
“I said at the start of the weekend here I felt like the grand slam was the destination, and I realized it wasn’t. I’m on this journey to — I don’t know, I just won my sixth major, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot with my game and my body,” McIlroy said.
“I don’t want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just — I don’t want to say a stop on the journey, but yeah, it’s just a part of the journey. I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well.
“I’ve waited so long to win the Masters, and all of a sudden I win two in a row. So I still want to enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I go back to play competitive golf, but I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post winning this tournament.”
–Derek Harper, Field Level Media
