Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, right, greets Justin Rose, of England, after winning in a playoff after the final round the Masters golf tournament, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
AP

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — The farther Justin Rose drove from Augusta National only made him realize how close he came to winning the Masters.

His phone kept buzzing on the way to Hilton Head Island, one text after another, all of them with the same message that applauded his remarkable rally and offered commiseration and condolences for his runner-up finish to Rory McIlroy.

Rose started the final round seven shots out of the lead, too far back to think about winning. He made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 66. He was in a sudden-death playoff. He lost on a great shot by McIlroy, who hit gap wedge to 3 feet for birdie.

It was a lot to process.

“A lot of outpouring from people with a lot of positive comments coming at me, so trying to absorb that, trying to absorb the week,” Rose said Wednesday at the RBC Heritage. “But at the same time, looking at my phone and just wishing there was a different message there.”

This is a path he knows well.

Rose had a 2-shot lead with six holes to play in the 2017 Masters when Sergio Garcia — like McIlroy, a good friend — made a most improbable rally to force a playoff and beat Rose on the first extra hole.

Rose was classy in defeat that day in 2017. He lovingly patted Garcia’s cheek, they embraced, and then Rose tapped Garcia on the heart. He knew what it meant for a talented Spaniard who had played 70 majors before winning.

He was equally gracious on Sunday, telling McIlroy when it was over he was happy to witness such a momentous occasion of the career Grand Slam.

It still hurts.

He searched for the right words. Rose was proud of how he played to match the low score of the final round with a 66. In one of those must-make moments in a major, he poured in a birdie on the last hole. There was a lot that went right. But there was no green jacket.

“Just sort of … don’t know what the right word is,” he said. “Tormented, probably, by the thought of what might have been.”

He joined Ben Hogan as the only player to lose a playoff twice at the Masters, and it might have stung worse for Rose because both his losses were in sudden-death. He now has had at least a share of the lead after 12 rounds at the Masters, fourth on the list behind Jack Nicklaus (19), Arnold Palmer (18) and Gary Player (12), who have combined to win 13 green jackets.

He has 23 wins worldwide, including a major at the U.S. Open and an Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro. He also has the distinction of congratulating a Masters champion on the 18th green three times in the last 10 years — Jordan Spieth in 2015, Garcia in 2017, McIlroy on Sunday.

The last time he lost the Masters in a playoff, Rose said it lingered for about a month. Sure, he made a few bogeys he’d like to have back from the final round Sunday. That’s true for anyone at any golf tournament. There’s still the sting of seeing someone else win.

Rose would rather look back to what followed after that 2017 loss. He went on to win three more times that year, including his second World Golf Championships title. He won the FedEx Cup the following year and rose to No. 1 in the world for the first time.

“If I look back to my best golf, 2017 August through to the end of ’18 is probably the most consistently good golf that I’ve ever played,” Rose said. “Obviously, I was a little bit more in the prime of my career around that time, or you could argue more prime.”

Rose, who turned pro as a teenager in 1998, will be 45 at the end of July.

“But I don’t see any reason that can’t be the same this time around,” he said. “I’m working well. I’m working hard. I’m feeling good about my game. I’ve been saying all year that my game is good. I’ve just got to make sure that I’m playing consistently well enough to give myself those opportunities, because majors come around … only four times a year.”

Rose can’t help but think how little it would take for him to be going to the PGA Championship next month at Quail Hollow with a shot at the career Grand Slam himself — briefly tied for the Sunday lead at Royal Troon, a playoff loss at the Masters.

“The last two majors I’ve been right there and been beaten by the top players in the world at the peak of their game,” he said.

What keeps him going at this stage? He will have completed his 28th year as a pro in July.

It’s moments like Sunday, being in the thick of it, delivering clutch moments. There was the birdie putt on the 18th at Augusta. There was that 8-foot putt on the 18th hole at the Ryder Cup in 2023 that earned a key halve. There was that walk up the 18th at Royal Troon last summer with thousands on their feet showing appreciation.

“I’m close to kind of some seriously good stuff,” Rose said.

Justin Rose reacts after missing an eagle putt on the 13th hole during the final round at the Masters golf tournament, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
AP

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler was the star attraction of a parade just two days after the Masters. This one was all about a red plaid jacket from Harbour Town, not a green jacket from Augusta National.

The tradition of the RBC Heritage is for the defending champion to lead a half-mile parade that ends near the 18th green at Harbour Town, where he hits a ceremonial tee shot into the Calibogue Sound as a cannon is simultaneously fired.

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“I had some ear plugs. It’s always nice when a cannon is going off,” Scheffler said. “It was definitely a unique experience. I was glad just to be able to make contact with the ball and not embarrass myself out there.”

And at least he was well-rested for Tuesday’s opening ceremony.

Scheffler is in a different spot in so many ways compared with a year ago, when he was coming off a victory in the Masters. He flew home to Dallas for a brief celebration, then got back on a plane to coastal South Carolina for a $20 million signature event.

He won that, too.

Scheffler couldn’t always hit it where he was aiming this year in the Masters. He still tied for fourth and was proud of putting up a fight. It was tiring, yes, but without the adrenaline rush of winning and all that comes with it.

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Instead of a big party, a flight home to Dallas and then back to Hilton Head Island, Scheffler enjoyed a peaceful three-hour drive and some relaxation that this tournament offers.

Even with a $20 million purse, this can feel like one big exhale.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy is not playing, and that’s by design. He had mentioned earlier this year Harbour Town was not among his favorites — the course is more about position off the tee and small greens than blasting away — and he didn’t enter the tournament at last Friday’s deadline.

It’s the kind of course on which Scheffler thrives.

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Even while running on fumes after his Masters victory a year ago, he still had enough left in the tank to put on a tee-to-green clinic, building a lead with a 63 on Saturday and finishing off the win Monday morning because of rain.

“This golf course is much more about control and putting your ball in the right spots and staying out of the trouble,” Scheffler said. “The fairways here are much smaller than Augusta and a flatter golf course overall. A bit of a different test, but definitely still a good test.”

That depends on how well he’s playing, and Scheffler feels he’s close.

Everything is forward in his world, though there was a concession that he has been trying to catch up form having missed a month away from golf — the work in the gym, and practice on the course — from his decision to make ravioli on Christmas Day. He punctured his right hand with a wine glass and required minor surgery.

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Scheffler is still trying to put together a complete game — driving well one week when irons are suspect, good irons and pedestrian driving the next.

“I was playing a bit of catch-up,” he said. “I feel like I’m improving each week. Body’s starting to feel better. Swing’s starting to feel better. I feel like I’m working towards having another good season. I haven’t had my best start this year, but I’ve had some good finishes.”

He flirted with contention at Torrey Pines. He was in contention until the very end in the Houston Open. And even in the Masters, he was a birdie or two away — with some help from McIlroy — from having a chance.

Scheffler recalls being in the 18th fairway, two shots behind Justin Rose and McIlroy, thinking of nothing but holing out for eagle. Rose was in the group ahead of him and made a 20-foot birdie putt, leaving Scheffler three behind.

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He recalls telling caddie Ted Scott, “I guess I’m going to aim at the middle of the green now.” Scott concurred, Scheffler made par and he was on his way to Harbour Town.

His final act was twice helping McIlroy into the Masters green jacket — first in Butler Cabin, then during the trophy presentation on the 18th green.

“It was cool to be able to see Rory get the job done,” Scheffler said. “Definitely from the outside it looked a lot more like relief than anything. Rory has accomplished everything in the game of golf, and that was really the last thing for him to accomplish. The guy has won FedEx Cup, The Players, all four majors. Maybe the only other thing would be the Olympics is what he would want to win.

“It was really cool for me to be there in that moment,” he said. “He’s a good friend of mine. To be able to congratulate him and just see the joy on him and his family was really cool.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

By Doug Ferguson

The Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Mount Rushmore of golf now has six faces carved into granite, and for that Rory McIlroy should feel as though he achieved the highest pinnacle in golf.

But there is so much more ahead for McIlroy.

He turns 36 next month and believes he is a better player than he was 10 years ago. There is little evidence to suggest otherwise.

In his 18 years on tour — half his life as a professional golfer — McIlroy has never won three times before the calendar turned to May. He has never felt so much freedom. He is playing with house money, and that has nothing to do with the $13.2 million he already has won this year in his six starts on the PGA Tour alone.

He is the Masters champion.

He now has a locker upstairs in the Augusta National clubhouse where he will find a size 38 green jacket waiting for him the rest of his life, a seat at the table Tuesday night at the Masters Club dinner. This was 11 years in the making. What a feeling.

The chest heaving as McIlroy dropped his head on the 18th green after winning was sheer relief. “The joy came pretty soon after that,” he said, and that much was evident by the look on his face when Scottie Scheffler helped him slip those arms into a green jacket.

“What are we all going to talk about next year?” McIlroy said, first in Butler Cabin and later to start his news conference. That’s the freedom he feels.

How about next month?

The career Grand Slam is in the books. It’s not too soon to consider a calendar version of the Grand Slam. The rest of the majors this year certainly line up in his favor.

The PGA Championship is next month at Quail Hollow, where McIlroy is a four-time winner.

He was among the players who went along with a fantasy question last summer. If the leading player in the FedEx Cup could choose where to hold the Tour Championship, where would it go? McIlroy picked Quail Hollow without hesitation.

The U.S. Open is at Oakmont, a big course for big hitters. That would suit him as well as anyone, though his last time there he shot 77 in an opening round held over two days because of rain and was gone by the weekend.

The British Open returns to Royal Portrush on his home soil of Northern Ireland, where McIlroy has a score to settle. The last time at Portrush, his own hopes and expectations were so high he hit his opening tee shot out-of-bounds, made an 8 and wound up missing the cut.

He returns with more freedom than pressure.

All that is a long way off, but it’s an example how the conversation about McIlroy has turned. It’s no longer what he was lacking but what else he can gain.

Scheffler, who was with him in Butler Cabin and during the trophy presentation, offered this observation Tuesday: “I don’t have the understanding of what it’s like to be asked about the career Grand Slam, but I have a small understanding of what it’s like to be asked, ‘Hey, you accomplished this, but you haven’t accomplished that.’ It can be very taxing on people sometimes.”

Brad Faxon, a close friend who works with McIlroy on his putting, said there was nothing stopping McIlroy now and that he could double his number of majors. “He can go on to win 10,” Faxon said.

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus once said a young Tiger Woods had the fundamentals to win 10 green jackets, as many as both of them combined. Woods got halfway there.

McIlroy was still 18 holes away from winning his first major in the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional when Padraig Harrington declared, “If you’re going to talk about someone challenging Jack’s record, there’s your man.”

Nicklaus has the gold standard in golf with 18 majors. McIlroy now has five, the same as Brooks Koepka, 10 fewer than Woods.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement. This Masters ranks among some of the great moments at Augusta National — Woods in 2019, 2001 and 1997, Nicklaus in 1986 and 1975, Arnold Palmer in 1960.

But this wasn’t easy for McIlroy, not on Sunday, not the previous 16 years. It had been 11 years since he won any major, and while winning the Masters was his dream, only twice in 16 previous tries did McIlroy go to the back nine with a serious chance of winning.

Far more haunted were players like Greg Norman and Tom Weiskopf, David Duval and Ken Venturi. That all had more scar tissue.

McIlroy said two years ago after his close call at the U.S. Open that he would go through “100 Sundays like this” to get another major. He would have gone through 1,000 Sundays to get a green jacket, especially considering all that was at stake.

McIlroy now is the sixth player with the career Grand Slam, joining Woods, Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen. Only four of them actually “won” the career slam because the modern version of it wasn’t even a thing until Arnold Palmer declared it one in 1960.

The only other player to complete the slam at the Masters was Sarazen in 1935 when it was held for the second time and wasn’t even called the Masters. He officially won the Augusta National Invitation Tournament. Green jackets weren’t awarded until 1949. The Masters Club dinner on Tuesday night didn’t start until 1952.

McIlroy really is the only player to get the last leg at the Masters, where memories are strongest as the only major held at the same course. That’s how special this was.

To consider the height of this achievement is to look not only at who he joined but who is missing from the Mount Rushmore of golf.

Sam Snead shares the PGA Tour record with 82 career wins. He’s not there because of the U.S. Open. Phil Mickelson has achieved more than McIlroy except for that missing leg of the Grand Slam (also the U.S. Open).

Tom Watson had 39 career PGA Tour wins and eight majors. Palmer is arguably the greatest influence in modern golf. Neither won the PGA Championship.

McIlroy began to wonder if he would also be one of those “almost” greats. The Masters frees him from that burden. Now it’s a matter of how much further he can go.

Originally Published: April 15, 2025 at 6:01 PM EDT