AUGUSTA, Ga. – Rory McIlroy fell to his knees and began to cry. He let out a primal scream as 14 years of pent-up frustration poured out.
“My battle today was with myself,” McIlroy said. “It was a struggle but I got it over the line.”
McIlroy, 35, sank a 4-foot birdie putt at Augusta National Golf Club on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with Justin Rose to win the 89th Masters on Sunday. He became the sixth player in men’s professional golf to complete the career Grand Slam, the first to do so since Tiger Woods in 2000, and ended his 11-year victory drought in the majors. In doing so, he cemented himself as the greatest player of the post-Tiger generation.
“I have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember,” McIlroy said.
It was a rollercoaster day of emotions as a nervous McIlroy squandered his two-stroke overnight lead with a double bogey on the first hole and lost the lead by the time he reached the third tee. McIlroy bounced back with birdies at the third and fourth hole and after a birdie at the ninth held a four-stroke lead as he made the turn. But as his fellow pro and good friend Shane Lowry pointed out later, “He doesn’t make things easy, does he?”
No, he did not. But that was a reflection of how desperately McIlroy wanted to win the elusive last leg of the career Grand Slam.
Rory McIlroy knows signing center of Masters flag is 'reserved for the winners'
Dustin Raymond knows as well as anybody. He has carried a black Sharpie to every Masters since 1991 to collect autographs on yellow souvenir flags with the Masters logo in the center. For a collector, nothing tops a pro's signature inside the green outline of the United States map with the red flagstick and hole location in Augusta, Georgia.
“It’s like the sweet spot on a baseball,” Raymond said.
To improve his odds of landing this prime real estate, Raymond folds the flag until only the Masters logo is showing and hands it to pros as if asking them to sign on the dotted line. It usually does the trick but not with McIlroy, who has unfolded Raymond’s flag and scribbled his signature in one of its corners. When asked whether that was conscious decision, McIlroy nodded his head to confirm that this wasn’t by accident.
“The center is reserved for the winners, isn’t it?” he said.
McIlroy’s superstition may rival that of a hockey player refusing to touch the Stanley Cup until his team has won it, and it illustrated just how badly he coveted the one major title that separated him from joining one of the most exclusive clubs in golf.
Gene Sarazen was the first to do so when he captured the 1935 Masters at age 33. Tiger Woods was the youngest to complete the grand slam when he won the 2000 Open Championship at the age of 24, Ben Hogan the oldest at 40 at the 1953 Open Championship. Nicklaus, 26, completed his slam at the 1966 British Open, and Gary Player, who was 29 when he edged Nicklaus by a year at the 1965 U.S. Open, along with two-time Masters champion Tom Watson, who never converted the final leg of the Grand Slam, failing to win the PGA Championship, all predicted McIroy would accomplish the rare feat this year in his 11th attempt.
“There’s never been a course that’s suited for a player like Augusta for Rory,” Player said. “It’s made for him.”
As soon as McIlroy captured the third leg at the 2014 British Open Championship in July, he articulated his new ambition.
"To be going to Augusta next year as a 25-year-old and have the chance to win the career grand slam – even I didn't think it was possible," McIlroy said at his winner’s press conference more than a decade ago.
