AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy stood over his ball in the 18th fairway at Augusta National, reeling.
Over the course of the previous 90 minutes, he’d bungled away a 5-shot lead in the final round of the Masters, well on his way to the biggest choke job of his career — and maybe any in the 89-year history of the tournament.
Then he launched a 126-yard gap wedge high into the Augusta sky that settled four feet from the cup in a sudden-death playoff with Justin Rose — winner gets the green jacket.
For the rest of his career, he will not hit a more important shot, for this one righted his sinking ship straight out of Rae’s Creek and into Butler Cabin where — after draining the four-footer to defeat Rose — he would finally slip on the elusive green jacket and complete the career grand slam.
"I have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember," he said Sunday night, wearing a 38-regular green jacket. "There were points in my career where I didn't know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders, but I didn't make it easy today. I certainly didn't make it easy."
Anyone who's followed a minute of golf knows the Saga of Rory McIlroy, that he won four majors by the age of 25, something only he, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods had done, but hadn’t won another since.
Eleven years and counting it had been — 3,882 days since he won the 2014 PGA Championship — a streak so brutally long that it stretched from the boyish kid with curly locks to the chiseled veteran with gray creeping down his sideburns.
He entered Sunday’s final round with a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau in what was anticipated to be a battle between the game’s two biggest heavyweights.
But that never really materialized. After an early slip — a double-bogey at the first — McIroy ran away from the field with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 3 and 4. Two more birdies at Nos. 9 and 10 vaulted him to 14-under for the tournament.
With eight holes to play, he held a five-shot lead over a field that seemed either incapable of making a run or simply resigned that the tournament was over — that a McIlroy win was inevitable.
Then came a seemingly innocuous bogey at 11, a chip in the water at 13 that led to a double, a drive into the trees at 14 that led to another bogey, and suddenly … the demons that have haunted him over these 11 years were awoken, only now they were barking louder than ever.
McIlroy hadn’t just been caught, he’d lost the lead entirely to a suddenly surging Rose, who'd come from seven down on the back nine to grab the lead.
Of all the majors McIlroy's held the lead in in the final round, this should have been the most relaxing back-nine ...
