AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy stood over his ball in the 18th fairway at Augusta National, reeling.
Over the course of the previous 90 minutes, he’d bungled away a 5-shot lead in the final round of the Masters, well on his way to the biggest choke job of his career — and maybe any in the 89-year history of the tournament.
Then he launched a 126-yard gap wedge high into the Augusta sky that settled four feet from the cup in a sudden-death playoff with Justin Rose — winner gets the green jacket.
For the rest of his career, he will not hit a more important shot, for this one righted his sinking ship straight out of Rae’s Creek and into Butler Cabin where — after draining the four-footer to defeat Rose — he would finally slip on the elusive green jacket and complete the career grand slam.
"I have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember," he said Sunday night, wearing a 38-regular green jacket. "There were points in my career where I didn't know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders, but I didn't make it easy today. I certainly didn't make it easy."
Anyone who's followed a minute of golf knows the Saga of Rory McIlroy — that he won four majors by the age of 25 — something only he, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods had done, but hadn’t won another since.
Nearly eleven years and counting it had been — 3,882 days since he won the 2014 PGA Championship — a streak so brutally long that it stretched from the boyish kid with curly locks to the chiseled veteran with gray creeping down his sideburns.
He entered Sunday’s final round with a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau in what was anticipated to be a battle between the game’s two biggest heavyweights.
Of all the majors McIlroy's held the lead in in the final round, this should have been the most relaxing back-nine stroll of his life — a coronation of a brilliant career, culminating in finally completing the career grand slam.
But it was all falling apart, an Irish tragedy playing out in real time on golf’s grandest stage.
He'd have to grind if he was going to turn tragedy back into triumph.
Of all the majors McIlroy's held the lead in in the final round, this should have been the most relaxing back-nine stroll of his life — a coronation of a brilliant career, culminating in finally completing the career grand slam.
But it was all falling apart, an Irish tragedy playing out in real time on golf’s grandest stage.
He'd have to grind if he was going to turn tragedy back into triumph.
After Rose missed, McIlroy got a second chance to win the Masters — the tournament that had eluded him ... forever.
When the putt fell, McIlroy let out a primal scream, releasing the scar tissue of emotion that had built up over the last 11 years — 14 if you count his meltdown at the 2011 Masters. Then he fell to his knees.
"It was all relief," he said. "There wasn't much joy in that reaction. It was all relief. ...
"I've been coming here 17 years, and it was a decade-plus of emotion that came out of me there."
