Why Rory’s Win At Augusta Is THE Sports Moment Of The Year

I’ll admit it. I’m an unabashed Rory fan.

I get that there are people out there who think they “see through him” or didn’t like his stance on LIV or whatever. I don’t really care.

He’s imperfect, which is something I can relate to, and he seems to embrace his imperfections, which is something I aspire to. So he threw a club into a pond. Twice. Hell, I’ve thrown a club or two on occasion. Not in a pond, mind you, but it’s not like I haven’t been tempted.

And, yeah, he grabbed some idiot heckler’s phone during a practice round at Sawgrass. Not a great look, but I know I’ve done plenty of stuff in my life I’m not particularly proud of as well. I think I can speak for honest, self-aware people everywhere: we’ve all done some dumb-ass shit in our lives that we’re not particularly proud of.

We just don’t have the sporting world watching us when we do it.

That said, I love a great story as much as anybody. Rory ending his Sisyphean quest to conquer Augusta and win the elusive final leg of the career Grand Slam is a great story.

How he did it is what makes it THE sports moment of 2025.

High drama among the azaleas

How well do you remember last April 13? I remember being grumpy despite Rory entering Sunday’s final round with a two-stroke lead. Six inches of spring snow in New Hampshire will do that to you.

The scene was set for some high drama. Rory chasing that elusive green jacket, with Bryson chomping on his heels, hoping for a repeat of the previous U.S. Open final round. Could Bryson track Rory down again? Would Rory wilt under pressure once again? It was must-see TV.

And it started in the worst possible way for Rory with his drive finding the fairway bunker on the right. The ball was below his feet and that bunker’s high lip kept Rory from going for the green. He laid up, pitched to 18 feet and promptly three-putted for a double bogey. Bryson parred and before you could say, “Here we go again,” Rory’s two-shot lead was gone.

Bryson’s birdie and Rory’s par on No. 2 put Bryson in the lead and it looked like the final round would be a bare-fisted grudge match between the two. That narrative unravelled quickly as Bryson gave back the lead with bogeys on 3 and 4, while Rory birdied 3 and 4.

Birdies at 9 and 10 put Rory firmly in the lead, while Bryson’s double-bogey at 11 pretty much ended his hopes. The new challenger now was Rory’s Ryder Cup buddy, Justin Rose.

The Back 9 Roller Coaster Ride was just beginning.

Triumph and disaster

While Bryson was stumbling, Patrick Reed and Ludwig Aberg were lurking. Rose, however, was catching fire. He birdied 10 and 11 while Rory cracked a little with a bogey on 11. After saving par on the treacherous 12th, he maintained a four-stroke lead with six holes to go.

Two shots later, he’s a pitch and a putt over Rae’s Creek away from putting a bow on this one and slipping on that green jacket.

Nothing left but the coronation, right?

Ahhh, no.

My wife later said the yelp I let out after Rory’s third shot on 13 sounded oddly like a badly wounded penguin. Not entirely sure how she made that connection or when she might have heard what a wounded penguin sounds like, but most marriages are better with a little mystery around the edges.

Seriously, though, what kind of Rory-like self-sabotage was this? On a green that big, to short-side a pitch on a downhill slope like that? We knew Rory’s demons wouldn’t go quietly but this was like they burst out of their crypt and grabbed the poor guy by the throat. After blowing two near gimmes at the 2024 U.S. Open, losing this Masters in this way seemed beyond cruel.

It was Rory’s fourth double-bogey of the tournament and second of the day. He was 86 yards from putting the Masters in his hip pocket. Instead, he left the 13^th green tied with Rose. A McIlroy bogey at 14 gave Rose the outright lead.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!

Testicular fortitude time

As if to prove that golf tournaments are, indeed, hard to win, Rose gave the lead right back. As Rory teed off on 15, Rose bogeyed 17, dropping into a three-way tie with McIlroy and Ludwig Aberg at 10-under.

Rory’s tee shot put him in a precarious spot but what followed was a golf shot – and a Jim Nantz call – for the ages.

A six-footer for eagle would certainly right the ship and make life easier but making life easy for himself just isn’t Rory’s style. Of course he missed, but the tap-in birdie put the pressure back on Rose who tied it up again with a birdie on 18.

It’s impossible to overstate how incredibly Rose played that Sunday. His 6-under-66 was as clutch as it gets. Under different circumstances, he would have definitely been the sentimental favorite.

This, however, was Rory’s time, even if he refused to take the easy route.

We all thought he finally put the tournament to bed on 17. After a mediocre tee shot, Rory stuck a ridiculous 8-iron to within a couple of feet for what should have been the clinching birdie. All he needed to do was par 18.

But, of course, that would have been too easy.

Rory buttoned his drive into Position A and then promptly dumped his approach into the right bunker. His par putt looked great … right up until it didn’t.

The wounded penguin groaned again.

Sweet redemption for the career Grand Slam

You could call Rory’s approach on the first playoff hole a “mulligan” of sorts. He was in nearly the same spot (“a little flatter lie,” he would say later) with an uphill, 125-yard shot into a green that will funnel almost anything decent toward the cup.

Rose had already stuck his approach to around 15 feet. McIlroy, with the weight of yet another major collapse on his shoulders, rifled his gap wedge to about two feet. Rose missed, Rory didn’t, and that was that.

I don’t know about you but that entire afternoon spent holding the couch in place had me physically and emotionally spent. Mr. McIlroy’s wild ride was finally over with a completed career Grand Slam.

There have been innumerable pro golfers in the quest for the career Grand Slam but only five before Rory had won them all. I don’t care who you are or what you think of the guy; Rory becoming the sixth is an extraordinary achievement.

That he did it was remarkable. The way he did it was unforgettable.  

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