AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National wanted a Rory McIlroy repeat.
It saw a Rory McIlroy repeat.
McIlroy has done it again. On Sunday, the Northern Irishman became the fourth player in Masters history to go back-to-back, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.
McIlroy further cemented his legacy in the tournament’s history not by blowing away the field or by producing a final-round score for the ages. After 36 holes, he had a record six-shot lead. But he sweated out this Masters Sunday, with two birdies in Amen Corner the difference.
While McIlroy faltered at the start, the other contenders did too — and ultimately, it was the 36-year-old career Grand Slam champion who was able to hold on, and for once, let the chaos unfold around him. A defending Masters champion has held the 54-hole lead or co-lead seven previous times, but only two of them went on to win. On Sunday, McIlroy’s final-round 71 to finish at 12 under par made him the third.
Scottie Scheffler, still ranked as the best player in the world, shot a bogey-free final-round 68 to get to 11 under par. It’s the third time he has finished second at a major championship.
McIlroy’s day began at 2:25 p.m. ET, tied for the lead at 11-under with Cameron Young, this year’s The Players champion, who had a one-shot lead after two holes. Young extended that lead to two shots when McIlroy three-putted from six feet on the par-3 4th. That was at 3:26 p.m. It took another hour and 23 minutes for McIlroy to wrest back control of this tournament, after Young had given Justin Rose a chance at the top.
But Rose felt the wrath of Amen Corner, and Young stalled out with a long string of pars, leaving an open door for McIlroy. McIlroy birdied Nos. 12 and 13, walking away from the infamously difficult three-hole stretch of the property in 2 under par.
After a tumultuous 48 hours in which McIlroy extended his lead to six strokes on Friday only to lose it entirely on Saturday, this tournament was McIlroy’s again. Only this time, he did not let it go.
“I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the Grand Slam, and then this year I realized it’s just really difficult to win the Masters,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy began this week at Augusta National with a weightlessness to him that was almost unrecognizable. For 14 years, McIlroy arrived here for Masters week and could perfectly predict what questions would be coming, what torments he would face. He felt physically uneasy when he set foot on the property.
“I think for the past 17 years I just could not wait for the tournament to start, and this year I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started,” he said, hours before a Champions Dinner that would draw raves from its attendees for the wine list, wagyu filet, and elk sliders.
That anxiety dated back to 2011, when McIlroy, a fresh-faced 21-year-old with a mop of curly hair, held a four-shot lead heading into the final round. But he collapsed, painfully so, and shot an 80. Charl Schwartzel slipped on the green jacket, and McIlroy tied for 15th place. He called his parents the next morning in tears. The memories would stay with him for more than a decade as he tried desperately to figure out how to win this golf tournament.
McIlroy teed off in a final pairing with Bryson DeChambeau last year on Sunday for what would become one of the most jarring and chaotic final rounds in Masters history. He started with the lead, lost it, regained it, and lost it again with a sloppy wedge shot into Rae’s Creek on No. 13, only to end up in a sudden-death playoff with Rose. McIlroy birdied the extra hole to not only win his first Masters but also to become the sixth to win the career Grand Slam.
So when McIlroy stepped foot onto the Augusta National grounds for tournament week, his relationship with the club had done a complete 180. No longer was this piece of property where McIlroy felt a sense of underlying stress and tension. It was suddenly a place with a fresh set of memories: The images of one of the most joyous, celebratory days of his golfing career flashed before his eyes at every corner. McIlroy’s looseness and positivity beamed from the inside out. Now, the new question: Was it his time to defend?
“I think the nice thing now is instead of it being come on, Rory, you know you can do this, it’s back to back. There’s a real positive connotation to it,” he said on Tuesday.
Swinging free and easy, McIlroy shot an opening round 67 to tie for the lead with Sam Burns. And on Friday, he remained aggressive — a 7-under 65 was proof that his plan to attack this golf course was working.
Since the first Masters in 1934, this was only the sixth time a player has led any of the four men’s majors by six or more strokes after two rounds. Each of the five previous players went on to win.
But this is McIlroy, and history suggests that sometimes, the statistics do not tell us everything. McIlroy’s scorecard appeared unflappable, but his driving accuracy painted a different picture: He was ranked 90th out of 91 players in fairways hit after two rounds, and that kind of scrambling never holds up for long. On Saturday, McIlroy was one of two players in the top 10 to post rounds over par, and he lost the entirety of his six-shot lead — a double bogey at No. 11 marking his most significant blunder of the day. But despite a third-round 73 and a six-shot lead erased, McIlroy maintained the mindset that helped him go on to win on Sunday last year.
He and caddie Harry Diamond reminded each other, again: We would have taken this position at the start of the week.
“I did bounce back. I hit some good shots coming in. But yeah, I’m in a great position. I just know I need to be better tomorrow to have a chance,” McIlroy said early Saturday evening, before a late range session to figure out why he was hitting his drives left.
A year ago, the past champions seemed to want to will McIlroy into their club. This year, they openly wondered how many more green jackets he’d win. “Rory may never lose this thing again,” 1992 champion Fred Couples said.
McIlroy may lose another Masters, but it won’t be this year.
