I'll Say It: This Was the Greatest Masters Tournament of All Time

Hot take? Absolutely not.

I’m gonna get some heat from the Tiger Woods Mafia—a group I’m a proud member of—but what we watched Sunday afternoon at Augusta National was the greatest thing those Georgia Pines and rolling hills have ever seen.

Standing on the first tee, Rory McIlroy had the weight of the world on his shoulders. All the memories of 2011, all the scar tissue of recent tragedy, standing next to the man who caused his most recent heartbreak at Pinehurst No. 2. Everything, and I mean everything, was against that kid from Northern Ireland who grew up watching this tournament one day hoping he’d slip into the Green Jacket.

And, of course, with a two-shot lead in hand, McIlroy proceeded to make a pretty sloppy double-bogey to tie things up with Bryson DeChambeau with 17 holes to play. For Rory, that was the only way this final round was ever going to start. It was never going to be a cakewalk to the finish. It was going to be a battle. A war.

I just wasn’t prepared for what was going to unfold. I don’t think anyone was.

Photo: Getty Images

I’m not going to go through shot-for-shot what happened. If you’re reading this I’m sure you watched everything in real time. But what I am going to do is highlight all the moments that separated yesterday afternoon from every other final round in this tournament’s history.

After his second tee shot found the fairway bunker, McIlroy was forced to lay up on the par-5 second. DeChambeau, however, played it perfectly. Great drive, iron into the green, two-putt. Walking to the third tee, the #BigGolfer turned a two-shot deficit into a one-shot lead.

But then things started to slip away from the YouTube sensation.

A bogey from DeChambeau on three and a birdie from McIlroy was the second two-shot swing in three holes and all of a sudden the European was back up by one. McIlroy stuffed a long iron into the par-3 fourth while DeChambeau missed wide-left. He’d go on to three-putt for another bogey while McIlroy made birdie. Thirty minutes prior, it looked like Rory was in for another meltdown. Instead, he walked to the fifth tee with a three-shot advantage.

Resilience of the highest degree.

The rest of the starting nine wasn’t much to write home about. The two leaders traded pars back and forth while Justin Rose remained too far back to even be considered as a threat. However, I'd be remiss not to give props to the moment when McIlroy hit a wonderful wedge into the ninth and converted the birdie putt to get to 13 under and four in front of DeChambeau.

Was it over? Absolutely not. But was it starting to feel that way? For non-Rory fans, yeah, probably. But I’ve watched this man for more than a decade. Nothing about this was ever going to be that easy.

But even I started to believe after his club-drop approach into 10 settled just 15 feet from the hole and he buried it. It honestly didn’t feel real.

Enter the dramatics to bring us all back down to Earth.

Forced to punch through the trees down the right side of 11 after his 3-wood off the tee cut just a bit too much, McIlroy’s ball bounded down the hill, kicking off the mounds short and left of the green carrying a little too much speed. As it got closer and closer to the putting surface, I put my hands to my face. The one thing he couldn’t do there was put it in the water.

When I looked back up, his ball was at rest six inches away from a cliff that would have brought it to a watery death. About time this man caught a break around this place. Still, his chip wasn’t great and he made bogey to fall back to 12 under.

Around this time Rosey started lighting up the second nine. He made birdies at 11, 12, and 13 to get to 10 under. That’s when he started to get a little attention from the broadcast and patrons. But again, McIlroy was 12 under with two par 5s ahead of him, surely he wasn’t going to let the Englishman catch up.

Think again.

After a par on 12, McIlroy hit 3-wood off the 13th tee, all but guaranteeing he’d play it as a three-shot hole. After a laying up, he hit one of the worst golf shots I’ve ever seen. And that’s not hyperbole or even a slight exaggeration. With 50 feet of slope to work with left of the pin, McIlroy put an 80-yard wedge shot into Rae’s Creek. Truly unexplainable.

It turned into his fourth double of the week.

And after another bogey on the par-4 14th, Rose and Ludvig Aberg were not only part of the conversation, they were now in a spot to win the damn thing.

But then Rory put the cape back on.

His tee shot down the 15th was blocked out by the trees, so he had a decision to make: wedge it down the hill and have another short wedge into a par 5, or be a hero.

He chose the latter.

With 7-iron in hand, McIlroy hit a slinging draw that started low to avoid the branches in front of him, then rose to a height no one else in this sport can reach. Before it hit its apex, he walked after it. It was instant flashbacks to a day earlier when he made eagle on the very same hole after walking after his second shot.

“Is it enough?” Jim Nantz questioned on the broadcast.

When it hit the green like a homesick angel and started releasing toward the flag, all I could think about was the darts scene from Ted Lasso. “Barbecue sauce.” If you don’t get that reference, I apologize. But if you do, you know how perfect it fits.

McIlroy didn’t convert the eagle putt—that would have been too easy—but he walked off that green with his nose out in front. Ahead of him, Rose missed a short par putt on 17 to fall back to 10 under with just one hole remaining. The stars were starting to align for the man chasing the Career Grand Slam.

McIlroy’s iron into 16 was a beauty, but he was unable to convert the short putt. The putter had gone quiet on him.

Then a roar came.

From 20 feet at the last, Rose poured in a birdie to get back to 11 under, forcing McIlroy to play his final two holes 1 under to win the tournament.

But Rory's cape was still fastened around his neck.

From the 17th fairway, 8-iron in hand, McIlroy hit a towering high draw. But he didn’t think it was going to get there. “Go, go, go,” he begged as it returned to Earth. It took one hop on top of the false front protecting the front of the green and released to just three feet. All of a sudden, a par down the 72nd hole was enough to win the tournament.

Again, did you think it was going to be that easy?

His final drive—or what he hoped was his final drive—was perfect. Down the left-hand side, clear of the bunkers, leaving just a wedge into the green. Surely it was over.

Nope.

The Irishman fanned it again and now he needed an up and down from the very same bunker he capped off his bogey-free 64 three years earlier. McIlroy splashed it out, urged it to run down the hill, but left himself five feet for the win.

With a CBS graphic that read, “For Career Grand Slam,” his putt missed on the low side. How on earth did he make bogey from 125 yards?

Playoff time: Rory McIlroy Vs. Justin Rose.

It was the first playoff at the Masters since 2017 when Sergio Garcia defeated none other than Rose on the 18th green.

After a quick intermission to set everything up, both hit great tee shots down the 18th. McIlroy's was somehow longer than the one he hit in regulation, but around the same spot. He was going to have the same club he had in his hands 20 minutes ago, a redemption shot of sorts.

Rose was first to go from 156 yards and his approach was a beauty. It landed past the pin and somehow didn’t come off the ridge just long of the flag. Still, it was a 15-foot putt, close enough to make Rory think about it.

Cape. Barbecue sauce. All that stuff from before.

McIlroy sent his ball into the air, landed it into the slope, and used the contours to bring it back to three feet.

And after a Rose miss, McIlroy finally had his moment.

All that pain, all that tragedy, all those horrifying memories instantly lifted from his shoulders. Raw emotion poured from every part of his body. His reaction was truly one of the greatest things we’ve ever seen in sports. Not golf, sports.

And shout out to Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman. They put on a clinic. Almost no words were spoken for the seven minutes it took for McIlroy to make it up the hill and into Butler Cabin.

But it wasn’t just the final three hours that made this year’s Masters the best of all time. There were countless moments over the first three days.

Rory’s second-round 66 a day after ending his beautiful first round with two doubles in his final four holes. Justin Rose once again taking command early in the week. Bryson’s larger-than-life presence and his storybook putt on the 18th Saturday night.

It was perfect.

But was it really better than 2019? Absolutely it was.

Yes, it was Tiger Woods. Yes, it was after all the surgeries that kept him down for so long. But everything about this week, the weight of the world coming off McIlroy’s shoulders in real time, puts this year’s edition on a different level.

We witnessed one of the great achievements in the history of sports.

It truly doesn’t get any better than that.