{"id":18797,"date":"2025-04-14T08:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/18797\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T08:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:56:18","slug":"masters-final-day-as-it-happened-rory-mcilroy-creates-history-with-dramatic-augusta-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/18797\/","title":{"rendered":"Masters final day \u2013 As it happened: Rory McIlroy creates history with dramatic Augusta victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Dream come true\u2019 \u2013 Rory McIlroy finally completes grand slam with Masters win<\/strong><\/p>\n

McIlroy admitted it was \u2018all relief\u2019 that made him sink to his knees after holing the winning putt, Phil Casey writes\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy hailed a \u201cdream come true\u201d after beating Justin Rose in a play-off to win the 89th Masters and finally complete the career grand slam.<\/p>\n

McIlroy threatened to squander a five-shot lead with eight holes to play before holding his nerve to birdie the first extra hole after an extraordinary final day\u00a0 at Augusta National.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching Tiger (Woods) here in 1997 do what he did, winning his first green jacket, I think that inspired so many of my generation to want to emulate what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels incredible. This is my 17th time here and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last 10 years coming here with the burden of the grand slam on my shoulder and trying to achieve it, I wonder what we\u2019re going to talk about going into next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely honoured, thrilled and proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy admitted it was \u201call relief\u201d that made him sink to his knees after holing the winning putt, adding: \u201cIt was 14 years in the making, from having a four-shot lead (after three rounds) in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of pent up emotion that came out on the 18th green and a moment like that makes all the years and close calls worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s fourth birdie of the day on the 10th had given him a five-shot lead, but he inexplicably pitched into Rae\u2019s Creek on the 13th to run up a second double bogey of the day and also dropped a shot on the 14th.<\/p>\n

After a birdie on the 17th had seen him regain the lead, McIlroy bogeyed the 18th and was grateful for the intervention of his caddie Harry Diamond before the play-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter scoring, Harry and I were walking to the golf cart to bring us back to the 18th tee, and he said to me, \u201cWell pal, we would have taken this on Monday morning,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, absolutely we would have\u2019. That was an easy reset. I just kept telling myself, just make the same swing you made in regulation. And I hit a great drive up there and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two yards less in the play-off than regulation and a flatter lie as well. It was a good number, just needed a committed swing and made one at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A disappointed Rose has now lost the last two play-offs in the Masters after being beaten by Sergio Garcia in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really didn\u2019t look at a leaderboard all day until the 18th green and realised I needed to make that putt to kind of give myself some hope,\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of putt you dream about as a kid, and to have it and hole it, it was a special feeling. Unfortunately, the play-off, they always end so quickly. That\u2019s sudden death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not the guy to hit the great shot or hole the great putt, it\u2019s over. But not really anything I could have done more today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he said to McIlroy as they embraced on the green, Rose added: \u201cI just said, listen, this is a historic moment in golf, isn\u2019t it, someone who achieves the career grand slam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said it was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it\u2019s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Dream come true\u2019 \u2013 Rory McIlroy finally completes grand slam with Masters win McIlroy admitted it was \u2018all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,79,16,15,4346],"class_list":{"0":"post-18797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-us-masters"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114335487349641642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}