Rory McIlroy WINS the Masters! Reigning champion retains his green jacket after holding off rivals in thrilling final day at Augusta

Rory McIlroy won the Masters again. And just like the last time 364 days ago, it was truly amazing. But if he ever gives up on the green jacket, his nearest and dearest should invest in a jacket that ties at the back.

Make no mistake, this magnificent, resilient and history-making son of Ireland also has the greatest crazy mind in the sport. We hope this never changes.

Because what great drama he delivered here in his idiosyncratic quest to become the first man to win back-to-backs on the hallowed course of Augusta National since Tiger Woods in 2002.

It is a measure of his greatness that in the 90 editions of the Masters only Woods, Sir Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus have achieved such a feat. Another is that he ranks 12th on the list of greatest winners of all time, surpassing Seve Ballesteros and joining the likes of Faldo and Phil Mickelson.

These numbers are his legacy. These are what define him, and at 36, we must assume that horizons can still expand.

Accounting aside, we’ll note that McIlroy shot a final-round 71 and recorded a one-stroke victory over Scottie Scheffler at 12 for the 72-hole score. Tyrrell Hatton came into a four-way tie for third place, joining Russell Henley, Cameron Young and Justin Rose in a stunning result.

Northern Irishman becomes fourth player in history to win back-to-back cups

McIlroy with his wife Erica Stoll, daughter Poppy, mother Rosie McDonald and father Gerry McIlroy

But let’s dive into how it happened, because that’s what makes McIlroy unique and why this tournament has taken such wild turns. Crazy turns. McIlroy returns.

This was McIlroy, who made a record six points on Friday and a huge lead on Saturday. The same McIlroy who fell two strokes behind Young and then Rose on a scorching Sunday.

But he turned it around. He wrestled back. And then he ran away from them until he had another one of those brain farts that make him so compelling to watch, stepping right into the 18th inning knowing he had the comfort of a two-stroke lead.

What did he do with it? Well, he sliced ​​so much into the trees that Scheffler, who finished well after his 68, was being nudged that a playoff might be necessary. McIlroy’s ball was in very bad shape; The only path to salvation involved hitting a shot toward the 10th fairway and hoping the ball would get caught in the same zip code as the 18th green.

What followed wasn’t nearly as dramatic as his 15th hook of 2025. This win was not the same magnitude as this one. But the boy managed to turn in flight and eventually came to rest in a greenside bunker. From there McIlroy was calm enough to find the putting surface and two putts meant a bogey. And the bogey was spectacular. Bogey was enough.

And so it roared and screamed, just like last year. It was the scream of a mad man at the end of a mad march.

We should spend some time on this too.

It was 2.15pm when he and Young headed to the first tee for the final round and they were immediately greeted with a raucous cheer from 445 yards away – Sam Burns birdied the forward green and joined them at 11 under. That set the tone for the uproar.

Augusta National Golf Club President Fred Ridley presents McIlroy with his green jacket

Northern Irishman overcome with emotion as he waited to tee off on the 18th hole

It was a great pleasure to finally etch McIlroy’s name into the history books once again.

After McIlroy and Young exchanged equals in the opening outing, the only observation worth making was that the Irishman abandoned his driver to three woods, clearly tired of living with his biggest dog’s mood swings. This led him to a renewed level of accuracy that would eventually prove necessary, but Young drew first blood by birding the second.

What will happen to Rose in the next two groups? Below nine was flying under our radars. We’ll never know.

But we noticed McIlroy made birdie from 9 feet to 12-under in the third. And when day four introduced the forced meltdown, we became even more aware of what was going to happen next.

Continuing his habit from Saturday, he moved his approach to third par so far to the left that he had to fly over a bunker to get back to the green. He had three strikeouts when he got there. At two o’clock towards Young, his story was being written and ignored for a better story. Because Rose will never let you lie, right?

Even though he is 45 years old, we must now regard him as an absolute British sporting treasure. If we don’t, look what he did between the fifth and ninth holes when he birdied four birdies, illuminated by a postcard moment of falling mid-run. This included a pine straw escape in the seventh that flew 162 yards before coming to rest eight inches from the cup.

These steps moved Rose into 12th at the corner and he surprisingly took the lead, but given what happened at Amen Corner perhaps Almighty has a problem with him. A bogey on the 11th was acceptable, but the iconic 12th was less so, as it featured a large chip that traveled eight yards and fell short of the green. A three-shot par at the par-5 13th meant two shots were gone and it was 10 under.

What did this mean for the leaderboard? It was a massacre. Hatton was safely in the clubhouse on 10 after the second 66 of a great week, Henley would eventually level that score and both Collin Morikawa and Scheffler were lurking under nine under. In addition to Rose, there were five horses in a seven-man race.

Which brings us back to McIlroy and Young. The latter made a rapid final approach to the turn, which meant he was relegated to 10 under – a position from which he never extricated himself. He couldn’t stand up. McIlroy? This was a different story.

An emotional McIlroy wipes away tears during the jacket ceremony at Augusta National

McIlroy looked set to take a historic six-shot lead before winning

The theme of Saturday was poor starts and collapse. Here he showed another side of that complex character; A poor bogey in the sixth had dragged him to nine under par, seemingly putting him on bad momentum, but the recovery was remarkable. And fast. And on time.

He birdied the seventh after a quick drive and then launched himself into the eighth with a 349-yard rocket — his biggest of the week. Two pars dragged him into the perils of Amen Corner and he was a few strokes away from his score when he left the 13th.

Every fairway and green was hit legally in this area, with putts falling anywhere from seven to 13 feet. He was now swaggering like Friday’s McIlroy, but he was more reliable at the start.

A note on this point: He hit more than 50 balls at the range on Saturday, so angry was he about the shots that kept drifting left. Obviously it worked because his drive on this last lap was by far the most accurate drive of his week.

Leaving the 14th place, his score was 13 under and three ahead. But there was a roar ahead – Scheffler, fresh off a superb escape from two sets of trees for a birdie on the 15th, had added another on the 16th to get within two.

This was pressure. And that was McIlroy. We saw how they could mix up when he swung at 18, but we also saw the genius in how he used it. Genius and madness? They’re pretty much in the same situation as this guy.