It's The Excruciating Pain That Makes Rory McIlroy's Masters Win So Beautiful

As Rory McIlroy fell to his knees on the 18th green at Augusta National, overcome with emotion and tears already falling down his face, that moment, even if just for a brief time, had nothing to do with any of the 76 shots he hit on Sunday. The double bogey he made on the opening hole wasn't a thought. Nor was the inexplicable wedge shot he hit into Rae's Creek on the 13th hole, the five-foot putt he missed on the 72nd hole to win, or even the birdie putt he made seconds earlier on the first playoff hole to win his first green jacket.

No, in that moment, we were witnessing a person finally reach a destination they'd felt destined to reach for more than a decade, and one who picked up so many bumps and bruises along the way while still carrying the weight of being the golfer of his generation.

Rory McIlroy falls to his knees after winning the 2025 Masters in a playoff. (Kyle Terada-Imagn Images)

McIlroy screaming from his knees on the 18th green, less than 50 yards away from the 10th tee where he gave away the green jacket in 2011, is nothing short of iconic, and the perfect representation of what makes Rory completing the Grand Slam in the style that he did so damn beautiful.

Brad Faxon put it best as he joined the Golf Channel after McIlroy's victory, saying, "This doesn't start today, it's the years that go into it."

The journey McIlroy took us on Sunday - and boy was it a journey - certainly had plenty to do with the golf he played over 19 holes, but it was just one epic chapter of the full story that culminated with him finally getting his hands on the green jacket and becoming just the sixth player in the modern era to complete the Slam.

McIlroy began his final round with a two-shot advantage over Bryson DeChambeau. A half-hour later, his lead was gone, after a double bogey on the first hole followed by a DeChambeau birdie on the Par 5 second.

This was the first, but not the last time of the day, where McIlroy's patented strut around the golf course disappeared and turned into a nervy walk.

As it turned out, the first two holes of the day served as the measuring stick to make sure we could all get on the rollercoaster because the next 16 holes and the playoff hole were as wild a ride as anyone could have imagined. 

McIlroy's driver, typically his sharpest tool, was not cooperating early in the round, but for the first time in his 17 Masters appearances, the golf gods appeared to be on his side.

He lost his drive way right on the Par 4 fifth hole, but found a window through the pines and managed to hit a stellar recovery shot before saving par. A similar story unfolded two holes later, only this time the miss off of the tee was left, yet McIlroy somehow managed to nearly hole his second shot after avoiding the collection of trees just yards in front of him.

McIlroy didn't manage to make birdie on the seventh hole, but in years past those two par saves on five and seven turn into bogeys, at best, and he found himself back in charge of the tournament with a three-shot cushion.

After picking up a birdie on the ninth, McIlroy found himself on the 10th tee with a four-shot lead and in a familiar yet nightmarish spot.

McIlroy held a three-shot lead as he made the turn in the final round of the 2011 Masters. He ended up pulling his tee shot way left on the 10th before carding a triple bogey and signing for an 8-over 80 to finish in a tie for 15th that year.

Then, what the entire world thought was the moment took place. McIlroy emphatically slayed the demon on the 10th and made birdie. He was four shots clear of second and felt entirely in control of not only the tournament, but himself, his golf swing, and the moment.

As impressive as his birdie was on the 10th was, what he managed to do on the 13th hole was equally as stunning, but not at all impressive.

After electing to lay up on the Par 5 from 240 yards, McIlroy hit what may have been the worst wedge shot of his professional career. His golf ball found Rae's Creek, and just when we thought it was going to be a smooth ride for McIlroy back to the clubhouse to pick up his green jacket, he found himself tied for the lead with Justin Rose after his second double bogey of the afternoon.

The birdie on the 10th felt like it had happened days ago at that point, the wheels were barely hanging on, and then began falling off with a bogey on the 14th hole. Rory was suddenly, stunningly, one shot back of Rose.

The drama was immeasurable, and McIlroy was faced with a make-or-break second shot into the Par 5 15th. 

Previous versions of McIlroy do not execute the golf shot. This is the moment we look back on in the days and year to follow that McIlroy fell short in the 2025 Masters.

As we learned about 90 minutes later, this was a new version of McIlroy, and one that comes through in the biggest of moments despite the golf course being his fiercest bully for more than a decade.

A birdie on the 15th followed by another on the Par 4 17th, and McIlroy was a par on the final hole away from earning a one-shot victory over Rose and finally getting his hands on that coveted jacket. 

After doing the hard part and finding the fairway off of the 18th tee, McIlroy was left with just 124 yards to the flag. Just hit a wedge anywhere on the proper tier on the green, two putt, and write history. But no, this is Rory McIlroy we're talking about. His second putrid wedge shot on the back-nine on Sunday came as he missed the green in the greenside bunker and didn't even hit the hole with his putt to win. 

Great, a playoff against Rose, an experienced major champion who birdied the 18th hole to close out his round moments prior.

McIlroy's missed putt on the 18th felt equally excruciating as it did expected. Of course McIlroy was going to make it as hard as he possibly could to win the golf tournament. He held a four-shot lead standing on the 12th tee, and now has to go into a sudden-death playoff beginning on the hole he just made a mess of from 124 yards in the middle of the fairway.

McIlroy ignoring the demons and the inevitable thoughts of doubt creeping in his head to go on and make birdie in the playoff - in a spot he's been on the wrong end of often - was not only impressive but also the perfect representation of the Rory experience the world has bared witness to over so many years.

McIlroy winning the career Grand Slam was always going to be a story for the ages given the historical impact within the game. The fashion in which it happened was real-life cinema that may have felt like something straight out of Hollywood, and that's because McIlroy's career has turned into that of a movie given the close calls and heartbreak he's endured.

It's that heartbreak, pain, and suffering that create these sports-figure characters in our lives that we have no option but to be enamored with. 

McIlroy is a player who won four majors in four years, completing three-fourths of the career Grand Slam along the way, yet had to wait nearly 11 full years before winning the Masters and his fourth major on this special Sunday. Those 11 years of not getting across the line, getting older, and having to convince yourself you still have what it takes to write your names in the history books is as equal as an achievement as pulling off the shots it took to leave Augusta National this time around with a new jacket to put in the closet.

Interestingly enough, McIlroy talked about heartbreaks and the role they play in life during his pre-tournament press conference at Augusta National, which is so incredibly fitting now that he found the winner's circle.

"It happens in all walks of life. At a certain point in someone's life, someone doesn't want to fall in love because they don't want to get their heart broken. People, I think, instinctually as human beings we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that's a conscious decision or subconscious decision, and I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years," McIlroy said.

"But I think once you go through that, once you go through those heartbreaks, as I call them, or disappointments, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you're like, yeah, life goes on, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be."

McIlroy will wake up on Monday, and while those heartbreaks won't have gone anywhere, he'll get to say they paid off.