WATCH Rory McIlroy Completes Career Grand Slam with 2025 Masters Victory

Rory McIlroy claimed the 2025 Masters, beating Justin Rose in a playoff, and completing the career Grand Slam with his first win at Augusta National.

Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters Tournament in a dramatic finish at Augusta National, securing the final major title needed to complete the career Grand Slam.

McIlroy closed with a one-over par 73 to finish at 11-under for the tournament, missing a short putt for par on the final hole that forced the tournament into a playoff with Justin Rose.

On the first sudden-death hole, Rose nearly holed his approach shot, finishing 12-feet behind the hole. Moments later, banishing the memory of a poor approach shot to the closing hole in regulation play, McIlroy’s wedge cleared the flagstick and spun back off the slope to three feet from the hole.

Rose missed his tricky downhill putt, and McIlroy made the birdie putt to win his first green jacket and fifth career major.

The victory makes McIlroy the sixth player in golf history to achieve the Grand Slam, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. It is his first major title since 2014.

McIlroy had previously recorded seven top-10 finishes at Augusta, including a runner-up in 2022, but had never been able to seal a win at the Masters until now.

“This is the one I’ve been chasing for a long time,” McIlroy said in his post-round interview. “To finally get it done here, in this way, is very special. It’s been a long journey, but I always believed I could do it.”

A double-bogey at the opening hole left golf fans with a sense of deja-vu in anticipation of seeing McIlroy capitulate again on the find day of The Masters. Undeterred, McIlroy remained composed to make four birdies in the next nine holes to assume a four stroke lead.

“I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course,” McIlroy said. “In a funny way, I feel like the double bogey at the first sort of settled my nerves.”

“And it’s funny, walking to the second tee, the first thing that popped into my head was Jon Rahm a couple years ago making double and going on to win.”

McIlroy was lucky he walked away with a bogey at the difficult 11th hole. After an errant drive, the Northern Irishman’s bump-and-run shot somehow pulled up short of the water to the left of the green.

“So I rode my luck all week, and you need that little bit of luck to win these golf tournaments,” McIlroy explained. “I didn’t see the ball on 11, but I heard the sort of groan of the crowd as it was rolling towards there and then the cheer when it stopped, and I obviously saw it.”

Like every Masters Tournament, more drama was to come. This year, it came at the par-5s on the back nine at Augusta.

McIlroy found the water with a short wedge into the green at the 13th hole. When Rose made birdies at 15 and 16, suddenly, the four stroke cushion had disappeared.

Perhaps it was McIlroy’s lack of faith in his wedge game that saw him play one of the all time great shots into the green at the par-5 15th hole.

After a drive nestled in behind the pine trees down the left-hand side of the fairway, McIlroy drew a 7-iron off the right bunker to within a few feet of the flagstick.

“I had 8-iron in my hand, and Bryson hit first and hit it in the water. The breeze had freshened up, so I switched back to a 7 and then hit that shot, McIlroy desrcibed after the round. “It was one of those where I knew it was enough to cover, and if it turned it, great, and if it didn’t, you’re sort of in that right trap and it’s not an easy up-and-down, but it’s a decent miss.