It looked as though he'd blown it. The six-shot lead that he'd built through 36 holes was suddenly gone, and he was the chaser.
Come Sunday evening, though, thankfully, there were no more talks of a choke.
Instead, as Rory McIlroy became just the fourth golfer in the history of the Masters to successfully defend the title, talk quickly turned to whether he's Europe's greatest ever golfer.
Looking at the statistics, it's hard to come to any other conclusion: he's Europe's best player of all time. What do you think? Let us know in the comments box below.
In winning his sixth Major Championship on Sunday, a year after claiming the title for the first time to complete the career Grand Slam, he joined Nick Faldo on the same number.
However, even if he had not successfully defended his title at Augusta, a feat Faldo accomplished in 1989/90, it would have been hard to make a case that he wasn't already the best.
Like McIlroy, Faldo also ruled at the top of the world rankings in his pomp and accumulated a staggering number of trophies, but the Englishman never won the US Open or PGA Championship. Nor did the great Seve Ballesteros.
It's always hard to compare players of different eras. The game was quite different half a century ago, when Faldo and Seve plied their trade mostly on the European Tour.
However, McIlroy's numbers dwarf all other names in the conversation, even if the great Spaniard does hold the record for most European Tour (now DP World Tour) wins with 50, a number that is unlikely to ever be beaten.
All three players are golfing Gods, of that there's no doubt, but this is how their numbers compare.
McIlroy |
Faldo |
Seve |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Majors |
6 |
6 |
5 |
Masters |
2 |
3 |
2 |
PGA Championship |
2 |
0 |
0 |
US Open |
1 |
0 |
0 |
The Open |
1 |
3 |
3 |
Major Top 10s |
34 |
26 |
20 |
DP World Tour wins |
21 |
30 |
50 |
PGA Tour wins |
30 |
9 |
9 |
Ryder Cup appearances |
8 |
11 |
8 |
Ryder Cup wins |
6 |
5 |
3 |
Ryder Cup points |
21.5 |
25 |
22.5 |
DPWT OOM |
7 |
2 |
6 |
Weeks No.1 |
122 |
97 |
61 |
Is Rory McIlroy Europe's best Ryder Cup player ever? Is he Europe's best-ever player at the Masters? How about The Open? Faldo and Seve have three Claret Jugs to their name, to McIlroy's one.
These are all separate debates to be had.
As for the greatest overall player, surely these numbers point to the Northern Irishman, who may well finish his career with 10-plus Major Championships and more than 40 PGA Tour victories.
And, at just 36, it's surely only a matter of time before he becomes Europe's record points scorer at the Ryder Cup, although Sergio Garcia holds that particular record with 28.5 points.
After going 10 years without winning a Major Championship, the man from Holywood looks intent on making up for lost time.
"I'm not putting a number on it, but I certainly don't want to stop here." 🏆🫡Six-time major champion Rory McIlroy continues soaring on his quest to become the greatest European player of all-time pic.twitter.com/ikxRxaY6qvApril 13, 2026
McIlroy has previously said that he would like to be considered the greatest European golfer of all time.
Although he's not putting a number on how many Major Championships he could win, he admits it feels good to be back in the conversation.
"There's obviously going to be that conversation, and that debate is going to be hard," he said. But it's a cool conversation to be a part of.
"Again, it took me 10 years to win my fifth Major, and then my sixth one's come pretty soon after it. I'm not putting a number on it, but I certainly don't want to stop here."
