Rory McIlroy’s 17-year dance with Augusta National reaches a pivotal moment in 2025, bolstered by two PGA Tour triumphs. Can he finally seize the Career Grand Slam, or will the Masters remain the one summit he can’t conquer?
Ten times Rory McIlroy has arrived at Augusta National with the Career Grand Slam firmly in his sights, and ten times he’s watched on – sometimes from the grounds, sometimes from home – as the Green Jacket has been fitted on another’s shoulders.
Rory’s relationship with the Masters is complicated; the love-hate affair beginning when he first arrived as a fresh-faced, curly-haired, 19-year-old back in 2009. Having worked his way onto the first page of the leaderboard through 15 holes on day two, he played the final three in five-over – making double on 16 and triple on 18 – and was understandably spiky when he’d signed his card leaving him just above the cutline.
Or was he?
Video footage surfaced of Rory in the greenside bunker on 18 where, having failed to get out, he made a swipe with his foot and was the subject of an investigation that lead to a phone call from then Competition Committee Chairman Fred Ridley – now Augusta National Chairman – asking him to return to the grounds to review the footage.
Not many players would be willing to say “no” to the Masters tournament Chairman, but McIlroy, adamant that he’d done nothing wrong, did exactly that. It wasn’t until the second phone call where it was made clear that it was in his own best interests to come in – basically, you’re getting disqualified if you don’t – that he acquiesced.
Call it childish petulance after hitting a poor shot – as most did – or call it smoothing out his footprints – as McIlroy did – either way, the ruling was that he hadn’t attempted to test the sand, wouldn’t incur a two-stroke penalty, and wouldn’t be ejected for signing an incorrect card. Quite the baptism of fire, and he was only two rounds in.
12 months later, he had his bags packed and was gone long before the final putt dropped on Friday, but in 2011, the already topsy-turvy love affair went full rollercoaster, and neither we nor he need any reminding of that.
But such savage breakings of the heart aren’t easily forgotten, and until Rory finally adds a Green Jacket to his closet, it’ll forever be the one that got away.
Each subsequent April, he’s been one of the focal talking points on Masters week, and with good reason.
In 2012, he was a major champion after his eight-stroke win at Congressional, but that was scant consolation for weekend rounds of 77 and 76 after he’d been one shot back after 36 holes.
In 2013, he was a two-time major winner but was struggling to get used to his new Nike equipment and again faded on the weekend.
2014 brought his first top-10 finish, and though he’d follow up with an improved T4 in 2015, a T10 in 2016, and a T7 in 2017, he was never really in contention on the final day.
2018, however, was a different story. Back in Sunday’s final group for the first time since that 2011 collapse, this time, he was the hunter rather than the hunted and – partly due to his pairing with Patrick Reed but mostly because of the magnitude of what he was on the cusp of achieving – he was the firm crowd favourite and if there was any doubt, the deafening roars when his approach shot landed and left him four feet for eagle on the second were proof of that.
But again, Augusta National spurned his advances – or rather, a series of right misses off the tee, combined with a couple of short misses on the greens made him an inadequate suitor.
And despite finishing solo second in 2022 thanks to a final-round 64 that was topped off by a glorious hole-out from the greenside bunker on 18, and having what he described as “the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course,” 2011 and 2018 remain the only two real opportunities to move to the Champions Locker Room in the hallowed halls of the Augusta National Clubhouse. While McIlroy might’ve had the most fun for 18 holes, Scottie Scheffler had the most fun in the Butler Cabin.
For a golf course that lends itself to McIlroy’s skillset as Augusta National does, it’s hard to fathom how he’s not been in genuine contention more often and the simple and obvious explanation is that it’s a mental rather than a physical problem.
So, the question begs, what’s different this year?
Well, for starters, he’s won twice on the PGA Tour in the immediate run in. In just three of his previous 16 appearances has he arrived as a recent PGA Tour winner, and in four more he’d recorded an early season win on the DP World Tour, but he’s never won twice before April.
On top of that, his two victories have come in Signature Events – tournaments where, with the exception of LIV golfers – he’s had to beat virtually all of the best players in the world, and by extension, the leading contenders for Masters glory.
He’s also found a way to win without necessarily having his best. We’ve become accustomed to McIlroy winning DP World Tour events with his ‘B Game’ and simply blowing away the field when he’s really on song, but, in his Players Championship victory in particular, he found a way to not quite win ugly but do enough to keep his nose in front.
And it’s that that makes his 11th Career Grand Slam bid all the more promising. Driving the ball like vintage Rory helps of course – and there’s not a golf course on the planet that hitting it long and straight isn’t a serious weapon on – but it’s the iron play, distance control with wedges, chipping and putting, and avoiding disastrous big numbers that separate Masters winners from Masters also-rans.
Statistically, he’s hitting it longer, hitting it closer, and putting better than he has in any of the previous five seasons, and crucially, he knows that too. The only metric in which he trails is driving accuracy, but that’s a manageable hurdle on a golf course where missing in the right spots is more important than hitting almost every fairway but lacking confidence from there in.
Now 35, and heading down Magnolia Lane for the 17th successive year, he’s showing no signs of slowing down, no reduction in work ethic, and no diminishing hunger to capture that elusive fifth major and even more elusive Green Jacket. But time waits for no man. Phil Mickelson might not have won a major until he was 34 and now has six – including three Masters titles – but even still, Rory is well into the back nine of his genuine contender years at Augusta.
A victory that banishes the ghosts of a decade of pain could be the springboard that launches him into a Mickelson-esque decade where he lands three or four more, but Rory feels the urgency of time.
“I know I will get plenty more chances,” he said after the final round in 2011, but 13 of those chances have come and gone.
Since winning major title number four at Valhalla in 2014, he’s never come closer to adding to that haul than he did at Pinehurst last year. And with Quail Hollow, a course he’s been dominant on, the self-styled hardest course in the United States in Oakmont, and another emotional homecoming at Royal Portrush just over the horizon, he’ll have three more chances even if things don’t fall his way in April.
His scar tissue is extensive, but his ability to pick himself up off the canvas and go again is second to none.
He knows those Augusta pines better now than he did at 19, 20 or 21, and he has a more complete understanding of what it means to win and to come up short. McIlroy has always had an active imag¬ination – it’s as present in his play as it is in his personality, and he’s always imagined himself draped in green. In fact, we all have.
His is a career that deserves an open-ended invitation back every April – which ironically remains the only month on the calendar in which he’s yet to win – and a place alongside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the most exclusive of clubs: the Career Grand Slam winners.
McIlroy’s Masters saga is no longer just about talent – it’s about tenacity. He’s shed the wide-eyed prodigy of 2009 for a battle-hardened veteran, carrying scars that have honed his grit. His two PGA Tour wins in 2025 signal a peak at the perfect moment, yet Augusta has never yielded to form alone. The pines that once framed his heartbreak now stand as silent judges, whispering of 2011 and 2018, waiting to see if this April rewrites his legacy – or deepens its lore of longing.
He’s imagined himself in green since his teens and so have we. With a game sharpened by triumph and a mind teetering on the edge of mastery, McIlroy’s dance with Augusta reaches its crescendo.
Will 2025 finally consummate his love affair with the Masters, or extend an eternal tale of unrequited yearning?
To complete the Career Grand Slam, Rory McIlroy needs only a win at Augusta National. Here are his major triumphs – and his many close-call finishes:
The Open Championship
Win: 2014
Top 5s: 2010 (T3), 2016 (T5), 2017 (T4), 2018 (T2), 2022 (3rd)
The PGA Championship
Wins: 2012, 2014
Top 5s: 2009 (T3), 2010 (T3)
The U.S. Open
Win: 2011
Top 5: 2022 (T5), 2023 (2), 2024 (2)
The Masters
Win: —
Top 5s: 2015 (4th), 2018 (T5), 2021 (T5), 2022 (2nd)
The above feature appeared in the 2025-3 edition or Irish Golfer. To view the fill edition click below
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