It took him 17 tries to make it happen but Rory McIlroy has achieved golf’s career Grand Slam—the sixth man to achieve the magnificent feat, and the first since Tiger Woods amassed all four of golf’s crown jewel trophies back in 2000.
After starting the season in style with a pair of victories, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship, Rory McIlroy kept the momentum going through the first major of the year, finally cracking the code at Augusta National. Following an emotional rollercoaster of a final round, McIlroy defeated Englishman Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff that lasted just one hole. The Irishman not only slipped on the fabled green jacket but also punched his ticket into golf’s most exclusive club—the career Grand Slam.
It took 17 tries for Rory to win the Masters and it was his 11th attempt at completing the slam. McIlroy is now only the sixth man, and the first since Tiger Woods, to conquer all four of golf’s crown jewel tournaments.
Not long after last year’s Champion Scottie Scheffler helped Rory slip on the sport’s most coveted jacket, McIlroy made his way to address the assembled media, fielding questions in a facility as plush as the club’s fairways.
McIlroy broke the ice with a gem, poking fun of the fact that talk of Rory clinching the grand slam has been a recurring storyline for so long.
“I’d like to start this press conference with a question myself. What are we all going to talk about next year?” he joked.
“You know, there were points in my career where I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders, but I didn’t make it easy today. I certainly didn’t make it easy. I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course. In a funny way, I feel like the double bogey at the first sort of settled my nerves,” McIlroy noted, before adding that on the walk to the second tee he remembered that Jon Rahm started the Sunday round of his Masters win with a double bogey as well.
Full Circle Moment
Heartbreak at Augusta, had been a very familiar feeling for Rory who has had many close calls at the hallowed tournament—the most painful comeuppance being when McIlroy was making the turn on the final round in 2011 with a three-shot lead before a badly pulled shot by the cabins led to a gnarly sequence that resulted in his lead evaporating that hole.
“What came out of me on the last green there in the playoff was at least 11 years, if not 14 years of pent-up emotion. I got to my locker this morning and I opened it up, and there was a note in there from Angel Cabrera, and just wishing me luck. And Angel Cabrera was the player I played with on the final day in 2011, it was a nice touch and a little bit ironic at the same time. It’s been 14 long years, but thankfully I got the job done,” Rory said.
Asked where the Masters win ranks amongst his illustrious career accomplishments, Rory dubbed the achievement, ‘the best day of my golfing life.’
“I’m very proud of myself. I’m proud of never giving up. I’m proud of how I kept coming back and dusting myself off and not letting the disappointments really get to me.”
