It was finally Rory McIlroy’s time, even if it took a little longer than perhaps was necessary.
McIlroy birdied the first playoff hole with a short putt after missing a chance to win in regulation, capturing the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam on Sunday in Augusta, Georgia
“This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” the Northern Irishman said. “I think the last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that — yeah, I’m sort of wondering what we’re all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters.”
McIlroy’s 1-over-par 73 left him tied with England’s Justin Rose, who posted 66 and waited for McIlroy to finish. They both shot 11-under 277 for the week.
Re-playing the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, McIlroy’s approach shot rolled back toward the hole and inside Rose’s ball. After Rose missed a birdie attempt and notched a par, McIlroy didn’t flub another chance for a victory.
He dropped his putter, put his hands on his head and fell prostrate on the green, sobbing.
“There was a lot of pent-up emotion that just came out on that 18th green,” McIlroy said. “A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.”
It marked the fifth major championship for McIlroy, and his first since capturing the PGA Championship for the second time in 2014.
McIlroy needed par at No. 18 to win in regulation, but after blasting from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole he rolled a 5-foot par putt too far to the left.
It was a starkly different reaction from when he departed the 18th green following Thursday’s first round, which included a pair of backside double bogeys and dodging the media on the way to the practice area.
Rose spoke briefly to McIlroy after the playoff and later added perspective to what just happened.
“This is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it — someone who achieves the career Grand Slam,” Rose said. “I just said it was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously, I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”
The new champion — who gave away his two-shot lead through 54 holes with a double bogey at No. 1 — also recovered from a disastrous stretch on the back nine to birdie the 17th hole for a brief one-stroke lead. McIlroy’s bogey on No. 11, double bogey on No. 13 and bogey on No. 14 appeared to send him on track for another final-round collapse at a major.
McIlroy said sending his ball into the creek on a wedge shot on the par-5 13th could have doomed his chances.
“I did a really good job of bouncing back from that,” he said.
McIlroy recovered for a birdie on the par-5 15th hole by drawing a tremendous second shot around a tree, over a water hazard and to 6 feet of the pin, where he two-putted for birdie.
Then he stuck his approach on No. 17 and sank the putt to take the lead.
Rose, seeking his first Masters title, had six birdies and two bogeys across the last eight holes, finishing with a 20-foot birdie putt.
“To make the putt on 18, the one you dream about as a kid, to obviously give myself an opportunity and a chance was an unbelievable feeling,” Rose said.
Rose was the leader after the first and second rounds, and after a tough 75 on Saturday he made a major final-round push. He had only four pars on his card — countering four bogeys with 10 birdies.
Patrick Reed (69 on Sunday) was third at 9 under. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler (69) placed fourth at 8 under, giving him four consecutive top-10 finishes at the Masters.
“I was just proud of the way we hung in there and put up a good fight,” Scheffler said.
Bryson DeChambeau, who figured to be McIlroy’s biggest threat and in the final pairing, took the lead after the second hole before stalling with back-to-back bogeys and a string of pars to skid off the path. By the time he double-bogeyed No. 11, he was tied for ninth and seventh strokes back.
DeChambeau’s 75 left him at 7 under, tied for fifth place with South Korea’s Sungjae Im (69).
DeChambeau said his troubles began with a putt on the third hole that scooted well beyond the cup.
“There’s no way that putt goes that far by,” he said. “I just didn’t realize how firm and fast it could get out here. It’s great experience. Won’t let that happen again.”

AUGUSTA, Georgia: For now, there’s another tradition unlike any other at the Masters: the first opportunity in nine months for all the world’s best players to compete against each other.

Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are among the biggest stars in golf that hardly anyone sees during this great divide in golf between the PGA Tour and Saudi-funded LIV Golf that doesn’t appear to have a bridge in the immediate works.

“I think we would all like to see that,” Rahm said about a potential unification. “But as far as I can tell and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon.”

Rahm still goes upstairs in the Augusta National clubhouse to the locker room set aside for Masters champions where he can find plenty of friends, six of them colleagues at LIV Golf and plenty others who can see beyond the strife.

DeChambeau still dreams of winning a Masters green jacket like he did when he was a kid. Even so, there is another identity at the first major of the year because it’s been so long since so many of the best were in the same field.

“Anytime I get an opportunity to play against everyone, the best players in the world, it’s great,” DeChambeau said. “I think that’s what we’re all hoping for at some point is for that to be figured out. That’s beyond me and beyond my scope, unfortunately. I think at some point if the players get all together, I think we could figure it out. But it’s a lot more complicated, obviously, than what we all think.”

Rahm returns to Augusta National in a far different frame of mind.

He was the defending Masters champion last year, fresh off his decision to go back on his proclaimed “fealty” to the PGA Tour and sign for LIV Golf. 

He had a major championship season to forget, never seriously contending in any of them, missing the US Open with a toe infection.

“There was a few times where there was a lot of questions that I didn’t really have an answer to ... the state of the game and what’s happening. We all want a solution and it’s hard to give one. When it comes to this week, last year for me was tough because it was the first major after joining LIV and I was also defending. There was a lot going on that week.”

There doesn’t appear to be much going on in terms of a solution.

The second White House meeting with President Donald Trump in February resulted in what amounts to a stalemate.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund behind LIV Golf, wants a path forward for team golf. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said while the goal was bringing together golf’s best, “The only deal that we would regret is one that compromises the essence of what makes the game of golf and the PGA Tour so exceptional.”

PIF recently sent a proposal offering $1.5 billion and Al-Rumayyan a seat on the PGA Tour Enterprises, to which the tour found no need to respond because it was ground already covered with no solution what to do with two tours.

Rahm, DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and other LIV players arrived from Miami after the first domestic LIV event at Trump Doral. According to Sports Business Journal, the PGA Tour averaged 1.75 million viewers on NBC for Brian Harman winning the Valero Texas Open. LIV Golf averaged 484,000 viewers on Fox for Marc Leishman winning.

And now they are all at Augusta National, and golf feels normal again amid dogwoods and azaleas, and far less Georgia pines wiped out by Hurricane Helene last fall.

It’s a big stage for the top players on LIV Golf to perform because opportunities are limited, even as players are thinking more about winning a major than proving anything beyond that. DeChambeau wants a first green jacket as badly as Rahm wants a second, as much as Scottie Scheffler is trying to win a third.

“I don’t think you need to do anything to make the Masters any more special than it already is,” Rahm said. “Coming here, there’s no added anything to that. Majors have always been aside from every event in the world, and when you come to one of those, it doesn’t feel any different to what it was before or anything like that.”

Toward the end of Rahm’s press conference, he was asked about the world ranking — LIV Golf events do not get points — and where he felt he was among the best in the world.

“Where am I in the world rankings at this point? Am I out of the top 100 yet?” he asked Close. The two-time major champion is coming up on the two-year anniversary of when he was No. 1 in the world. He dropped five spots this week to No. 80.

“A couple weeks to go and I’ll be gone,” Rahm said with sarcasm mixed with reality. “I’m not going to say exactly a number, but I would still undoubtedly consider myself a top-10 player in the world. But it’s hard to tell nowadays.”

He wouldn’t get much of an argument. During his time on LIV, the Spaniard has never finished out of the top 10 in any 54-hole tournament he finished.

In the seven tournaments he played outside LIV last year — including the Olympics — Rahm has five top 10s, a missed cut at the PGA Championship and a tie for 45th in the Masters.

“I think last year the state of my game was being unfairly judged based on how I played here and at the PGA compared to how I really played throughout the whole year,” Rahm said. “While I understand why, I don’t think it was the most fair state of my game.”