When Rory McIlroy has played his final round of competitive golf, likely several decades from now, there will be no shortage of highlights to look back on.
We already know they will include at least two Players Championship titles, Ryder Cup glory, and victories at the PGA Championship, US Open, and The Open.
However, even with so much time still to come in his career, it would have to be something very special indeed if completing the career Grand Slam at The Masters in 2025 isn't at the top of the list.
While the history books will show that McIlroy finally got to wear the Green Jacket for the first time after his 17th appearance at Augusta National, it doesn’t tell anything like the full story of his Masters career.
The Northern Irishman made his maiden Masters appearance in 2009, two years after turning professional. Even at that early stage, his talent was evident as he placed T20 in a highly creditable debut performance.
In 2010, McIlroy had what would turn out to be a rare failure at the Georgia layout, which most observers agree suits his game perfectly, when he missed the cut following rounds of 74 and 77, but a year later, that looked little more than a blip as he led by four going into the final round.
Fate had other ideas, though, with McIlroy suffering a disastrous capitulation that resulted in an 80 and finishing 15th.
Perhaps the demons of that lingered 12 months later, because, after solid rounds of 71 and 69 to reach the halfway stage of the 2012 Masters tied for third, he endured another unraveling, albeit not nearly as spectacular as a year earlier, ultimately placing in a tie for 40th.
A year later, there was more disappointment when any hopes McIlroy had of claiming the Green Jacket fell apart with a 79 in the third round, before he recovered with a 69 to finish T25 as Adam Scott won.
If the first five years of McIlroy’s Masters career had been mixed, to say the least, he was about to find a run of impressive consistency that suggested victory ought to be his one day.
That sequence began in 2014 when, after only making the cut by one, he went on to achieve his highest Masters finish at that point, with a T8.
A year later, he went closer still, improving as the week went on before placing fourth, six shots behind winner Jordan Spieth.
McIlroy again had one poor round to blame for not finishing higher in 2016, when a 77 in the third round put paid to his chances before he clambered back up the leaderboard to T10.
Another top-10 finish came in 2017 with a T7, where McIlroy’s final round of 69 was his best of the week as his good friend Sergio Garcia took the title.
In 2018, McIlroy was firmly in the hunt after a three-under 69 in the first round left him tied for fourth, and by the end of play on Saturday, he was second, three behind Patrick Reed.
However, in the final round, after missing a four-foot putt for eagle on the second that would have tied the lead, perhaps the writing was on the wall.
In the end, he slumped to a 74 to place tied for fifth as Reed took the title.
That brought a run of five consecutive top-10 finishes to an end for McIlroy, as a generally more subdued performance followed in 2019, until a four-under final round of 68 saw him finish in T21 as Tiger Woods claimed his fifth Masters title.
With one round to play of the Covid-19-delayed 2020 event, McIlroy had eight shots to make up on leader Dustin Johnson, but by the end, the gap had increased to nine despite a three-under 69 as he placed T5, with Johnson winning.
McIlroy was enduring a rare spell outside the world’s top 10 by the time the 2021 Masters came around, and he didn’t improve his ranking with a missed cut following rounds of 76 and 74.
A year later, we saw the return of the effervescent McIlroy that had come so close at The Masters before. This time, he began the final round tied for ninth before putting together a brilliant 64 that finished with a memorable birdie from a greenside bunker on the 18th.
That score tied the record for the low score in the final round of The Masters as he finished runner-up, as Scottie Scheffler cruised to the title by three.
Would 2023 finally be the year McIlroy conquered Augusta National? He certainly seemed cheerful enough as he went mic’d up during the first round on his way to an even-par 72, but a disastrous 77 in the second round saw him miss the cut for just the third time in his Masters career.
Despite a stacked schedule leading up to the tournament, there was never really a sense that McIlroy was firing on all cylinders going into the 2024 event, and so it proved, as he stuttered to a T22.
At that stage, it had been a decade since McIlroy’s fourth and most recent Major title, and he couldn’t add a fifth later that year, with a final-round collapse against Bryson DeChambeau at the US Open raising doubts as to whether he still had what it took to get over the line in the big events.
That brings us to the 2025 Masters, where two double-bogeys in an otherwise encouraging opening round saw McIlroy skip the media as another heartbreak seemed on the cards.
This time, though, he had other ideas, firing back with a 66 on Friday to move to T3, before repeating the score in the third round to lead Bryson DeChambeau by two.
This being McIlroy, he didn’t make it easy in the final round, putting fans through the emotional wringer as he quickly lost the lead, regained it, then extended it before letting it slip again in a rollercoaster final round.
Needing a par on the 18th to beat Justin Rose by one, he found a greenside bunker before missing a short putt that would have sealed the win.
After heading back to the 18th tee box for the playoff, this time, McIlroy made no mistake.
With his approach, he set up an inviting birdie chance, giving him a slight advantage over Rose, who was left with a longer putt for his birdie.
After Rose missed his chance, McIlroy steadied himself and rolled in the winning putt before sinking to his knees as the Green Jacket, finally, was his.
Rory McIlroy's Masters Record
Year |
Finishing Position |
Rounds |
2009 |
T20 |
(72, 73, 71, 70) |
2010 |
M/C |
(74, 77) |
2011 |
T15 |
(65, 69, 70, 80) |
2012 |
T40 |
(71, 69, 77, 76) |
2013 |
T25 |
(72, 70, 79, 69) |
2014 |
T8 |
(71, 77, 71, 69) |
2015 |
4th |
(71, 71 68, 66) |
2016 |
T10 |
(70, 71, 77, 71) |
2017 |
T7 |
(72, 73, 71, 69) |
2018 |
T5 |
(69, 71, 65, 74) |
2019 |
T21 |
(73, 71, 71, 68) |
2020 |
T5 |
(75, 66, 67, 69) |
2021 |
M/C |
(76, 74) |
2022 |
2nd |
(73. 73. 71. 64) |
2023 |
M/C |
(72, 77) |
2024 |
T22 |
(71, 77, 71, 73) |
2025 |
1st |
(72, 66, 66, 73) |
