In the end, it was a gentle putt that finally won him a Green Jacket after years of trying. Mcllroy’s Masters Moment, as it’s been dubbed, came at the end of a nail-biting four-day competition and sudden death play-off in which the Northern Irishman defeated England’s Justin Rose.
Besides the joy, there was another emotion etched across Rory McIlroy’s face as he fell to his knees, sobbing into the green: the lifting of years of crushing pressure, repeated spells of underachievement, and the final vanquishing of the chorus of naysayers who predicted he would never complete the Grand Slam.
Welcomed into the firmament of true golfing greats, world leaders were off the mark quickly to hail a man whose refusal to give up must now surely define his legacy as much as his other tournament wins. King Charles, Sir Keir, President Trump and the Taoiseach were just a few of those queuing up to hail McIlroy’s superb victory – and yes, he is probably in line for a knighthood, too, joining fellow great Sir Nick Faldo.
Not only that, but his wife and daughter were there to take it all in and savour the occasion. Poppy, 4, sank an “incredible” putt during the pre-competition fun in an omen of things to come.
How far the County Down man must have felt he had travelled: from a wonder kid who showed off his skills by chipping balls into a washing machine, to a young pro with the world at his feet… followed by years of frustration and personal travails, then becoming just the sixth golfer in history to complete a career grand slam.
Mad celebrations in his hometown at the Holywood Golf Club also followed, but even the club’s lady captain Ruth Watt gave voice to what many other fans had feared.
“We thought he had thrown it away”, she told the BBC about his last-minute jitters, “but it was an unbelievable finish”.
Back in 2020, McIlroy sounded like someone ready to walk away from the game entirely, confessing he was “going through the motions” as his years-long slump worsened. “I want to get an intensity and some sort of fire, but I just haven’t been able to,” he said glumly.
But while his play slowly improved – regaining the world number two spot in March – his personal life threatened to wreck any progress he was making on the course.
That’s because it was less than a year ago that the 35-year-old was in the deepest of personal doldrums, facing up to both his already decade-long major drought but also his shock filing of divorce papers in a Florida court. McIlroy’s petition, served on May 13 last year, asked for shared parental custody and for a judge to enforce the pre-nup which the golfer, worth around £225 million, had agreed with Erica Stoll before their 2017 wedding.
The move rocked the close-knit golfing world, with American Stoll having worked for the PGA and being well-known behind the scenes, and her romance with McIlroy, dating back a decade, seeming rock solid.
What triggered the abrupt breakdown in their relationship remains unclear, but unkind rumours linking him to glamorous golf correspondent Amanda Balionis began to circulate at the same time. Neither commented on the link, but within days, the miraculous occurred. McIlroy said: “There have been rumours about my personal life recently, which is unfortunate. Responding to each rumour is a fool’s game.”
But in a bombshell statement to the Guardian, he added: “Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realised that our best future was as a family together. Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.”
Rescuing his marriage from the brink must have boosted his confidence, to be sure, although the added edge his play needed for him to win a major competition took time to come to fruition.
Indeed, the display of unmitigated joy of his embrace with wife and daughter after winning gives the lie to claims the reconciliation was more due to his inability to “‘be on his own for more than five minutes” than reasons of romance.
But making snap decisions before having to do a U-turn publicly could be seen as a feature of McIlroy’s private life. He was previously set to wed former world number-one tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. But days after the wedding invites were posted,
Rory reversed course and called the whole thing off. Prior to that, the ending of his relationship with teenage sweetheart Holly Sweeney was bitterly contested. While McIlroy called it amicable, Sweeney – who is now married to an ice hockey coach – claimed it was anything but in an interview.
“Rory ran away with Caroline. I never thought he would do this to me,” she told the Irish Daily Mirror. “It killed me – I went away to Dubai as soon as we split up so I didn’t have to look or think about it. I always suspected he had a thing for her. He’s always been a big fan of tennis. When he was watching the women’s games, he always said he fancied her but I didn’t take it that seriously – little did I know.”
But perhaps it was his emotional, impulsive streak – like filing for divorce then walking it back – that created one of the greatest moments of McIlroy’s recent victory. His unbelievable approach shot on the seventh hole of his final round had all the hallmarks of golfing genius. Sending the Masters crowd into raptures, he landed his audacious effort within a few feet of the hole, after leaving himself out of position with an errant tee shot.
With his approach severely obstructed by six tall magnolia trees, he swung a wedge with all of his strength. After a tense silence, the ball landed bang on target and rolled to within a foot of the seventh hole before trickling six feet past. It was aptly described by commentatorand three-time Masters winner Nick Faldo as a shot which “fell from golfing heaven”.
McIlroy mused before the tournament began in strikingly personal terms: “At a certain point in life, someone doesn’t want to fall in love because they don’t want to get their heart broken.
“Instinctually as human beings we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that’s a conscious decision or subconscious decision. I think once you go through that, once you go through those heartbreaks – as I call them – you get to a place where you remember how it feels.
“You wake up the next day and you’re like, ‘Life goes on, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be.’”
His comments could have been interpreted as downbeat, and indeed McIlroy did face a shaky start at Augusta, ending his opening round with doubt clouding his mind – but he found solace through guidance from sports psychologist Bob Rotella.
“It was maybe one of the greatest performances ever, with so much pressure on him,” Dr Rotella told BBC Radio 5 Live after the victory.
After all, he could have already nabbed a Green Jacket but for a catastrophic collapse while ahead by four shots, all the way back in 2011. High-profile failure followed high-profile failure, with Dr Rotella explaining: “Some people have an experience like that and decide they don’t want to get there again, it hurts too much.”
Not McIlroy. He told Dr Rotella he “could handle losing”. And after his wonderful display, he’s proved he can handle winning with aplomb and grace, too.
“The one thing I would say to my daughter Poppy is never give up on your dreams. Keep coming back and working hard and you can do anything,” McIlroy said after his victory.
Keeping it all in perspective, and apparently with an eye to the ups and downs of his personal life, he added: “I’m not going to compare this to life moments like a marriage or having a child. But it’s the best day of my golfing life.”