Rory redemption! McIlroy banishes demons in Masters playoff thriller as grand slam FINALLY complete

From the jaws of his most humiliating capitulation yet, Rory McIlroy is a Masters champion at last following one of the most dramatic days of major championship golf the world has seen.

The Northern Irishman converted his two-shot, 54-hole lead into a playoff win over Justin Rose, but words can scarcely describe the sheer magnitude of the drama that unfolded on Sunday at Augusta National.

It was a final round that will live through the ages.

McIlroy, carrying the scars of golf’s most curious majors drought, on three separate occasions appeared to be in a doom spiral that would keep him out of a maiden green jacket.

He started the day by instantly blowing his overnight two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau. He later squandered a four-shot advantage with just four holes to play, while he failed to make a five-foot putt at the 72nd hole that would have given him the green jacket in regulation.

That led to a playoff in which McIlroy, facing unimaginable pressure, finally prevailed.

With both players in the fairway, it was McIlroy who struck the sweeter approach with his ball coming to rest just three-feet from the hole.

It forced Rose into making his birdie putt from about 15-feet, but he narrowly missed to open the door to McIlroy.

Despite his long history of short misses to win a major, McIlroy finally did not falter, fidning the bottom of the cup to pull off the career grand slam.

In triumph, McIlroy fell to his knees and roared in one of the most emotional scenes Augusta has witnessed.

“McIlroy has his masterpiece,” was Jim Natz’s instantly iconic call.

Earlier, McIlroy made a disastrous start to the final round by trailing DeChambeau after two holes courtesy of a nervy double-bogey start.

The nine holes that followed saw McIlroy card four birdies and no bogeys, laying waste to a sloppy DeChambeau in the process and, seemingly, all others as he stretched out to a four-shot.

But that failed to account for Rose, the two-time runner-up, and leaderboard’s sleeper, armed with his own decade of Augusta hurt.

Rose made a stunning final push, posting six birdies on the back nine that included a clutch 20-foot putt at the final hole to card a six-under 66, and take the clubhouse lead at 11-under.

The Englishman’s surge forced McIlroy to make his own play down the stretch, which had been looking stress-free despite a bogey at the 11th hole.

As he stood over his ball on the 13th fairway 154 yards to the pin, McIlroy still held a three-shot lead and looked certain to at least make par.

He then inexplicably chunk-pushed his third shot into Rae’s Creek and made a double bogey at the same time Rose birdied 16 to wipe out his lead in an instant.

According to the Golf Channel’s Dottie Pepper, McIlroy missed his target “by 25 yards”, while Nantz said that he and the other commentators were “still in shock”.

The unthinkable blunder was compounded with another bogey on 14 that made it four dropped shots for McIlroy in as many holes.

That’s when McIlroy arrested the slide from 208 yards on the 15th, striking a scarcely-believable seven-iron that drew around the trees and came to rest six-feet from the hole.

“The shot of a lifetime,” Jim Nantz said in commentary.

The incredible shot will sit alongside McIlroy’s at the same hole on Saturday as instantly iconic masterpieces.

Even then, this day had not nearly seen all of its twists and turns.

McIlroy feebly left his eagle putt low and settled for a birdie, leaving him with only a precarious one-shot lead for the nerve-jangling final three holes.

Rose added to the dread felt by those riding McIlroy towards the green jacket when he closed his round with a clinical birdie.

The ambush meant McIlroy needed to make at least one more birdie to clinch the green jacket in 72 holes.

That birdie came at the 17th when McIlroy struck another laser approach from 196 yards, this time to just two-feet.

The kick-in birdie gave McIlroy a one shot buffer going to the 18th.

“It’s been a journey, and an odyssey, just today,” Nantz said.

And yet, it somehow still wasn’t over.

McIlory, faced with the single-greatest pressure swing of his career through the narrow chute on 18, striped his driver, leaving him with just 125 yards to the hole.

With just a gap wedge in hand, he still failed to hit the green, leaving himself with a basic, yet nervy, up-and-down from the bunker to win the Masters.

His bunker shot was solid, but still left him five-feet to win the green jacket.

Those five-feet proved to be too much with McIlroy pulling his putt, bringing back haunting memories of his US Open loss to DeChambeau at Pinehurst last year into jarring focus.

However, the playoff win finally closed the circle on McIlroy’s tale of major championship woe, which effectively started in 2011 when he wasted a three-shot Masters lead with nine holes to play.

His last major came in 2014, while he was runner-up at three majors since the start of 2022.

The Masters is headed to a playoff after a stunning finish to the final round.

Rory McIlroy needed to just par the 18th to win his first Masters title and claim the grand slam but could only manage bogey.

He will head to a playoff with Justin Rose after the Englishman came from seven shots back.

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