16 years after making his first Masters appearance and 14 years after letting slip a four-stroke 54-hole lead, Rory McIlroy finally found himself in Butler Cabin with a Green Jacket being draped on his shoulders.
After the most rollercoaster of final rounds imaginable, it took one extra hole for him to emerge victorious, but the trials and tribulations will only serve to make it sweeter when it finally sinks in that he’s joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win all four Major Championships.
“It feels incredible,” he told CBS’ Jim Nantz at the Green Jacket ceremony. “This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time. I think the last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that, yeah, I’m sort of wondering what we’re all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters.
“But I’m just absolutely honored and thrilled and just so proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”
And he had to do it the hard way, battling early nerves and picking himself up off the floor on numerous occasions most notably after conspiring to double bogey the 13th just as it began to look as though he’d have a victory procession.
“Yeah, when I hit the wedge shot into the creek on 13, I felt like I did a really good job of bouncing back from that, and the double bogey at the 1st, as well,” he explained.
“But I was really nervous going out. It was almost as if the double bogey at the 1st calmed my nerves a little bit and sort of got me into it in a funny way.
“I just think all week how I responded to setbacks, I think that’s what I’ll take from this week. Couldn’t be more proud I myself for that and being able to back bounce when I needed to.”
When it came down to sudden death, the hesitant McIlroy that had played 18 in regulation had disappeared and the fearless, gun-slinging player that had captured four Major Championships by the age of 24 reappeared.
“Yeah, I think I had two yards less in the playoff than I did in regulation,” he said. It was a little bit of a flatter lie, as well, so I knew I had a perfect three-quarter gap wedge; was going to land into the slope and come back.
“So it was a good number. I just needed to make a good, committed swing, and I made one at the right time.”
Understandably, the emotions ran high on the 18th green when he finally saw off Justin Rose, banishing the ghosts that had haunted him in major championships for over a decade and for 14 years at Augusta National.
“Yeah, I think — I would say it was 14 years in the making, from going out with a four-shot lead in 2011, feeling like I could have done it got there,” he reflected.
“Yeah, there was a lot of pent-up emotion that just came out on that 18th green. A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.
“I want to say hello to my mom and dad. They’re back home in Northern Ireland.”
At this point, he could hold back the tears no longer, as he reflected on the sacrifices his father Gerry and mother Rosie had made throughout his early years and he felt that this victory was as much for them as it was for him.
“I can’t wait to see them next week,” he addded. “I just can’t wait to celebrate this with them.”
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