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AUGUSTA, Ga. – I'm not sure where all this angst about Rory McIlroy's Masters career is coming from. I've been to two Masters Tournaments. He's looked pretty decent in both ...

McIlroy on top again

The wind was swirling, but Rory McIlroy was committed. It was a perfect three-quarter nine-iron if the wind did what it’s supposed to. McIlroy was content to wait until it did.

The moment was a callback to a 2009 practice round with Tom Watson, who told McIlroy, then 20 years old, to never relent on that tee box. Indecision at Augusta National’s 12th hole has sunk more contenders than any hole in professional golf.

So McIlroy waited, then sprang into action when the time was right. He grooved that three-quarter iron, a shot he picked up in advance of his first Masters victory a year ago. It safely landed one pace over the bunker and spun to 7 feet from the pin. When he holed the putt to get to 12-under, his lead was two. We didn’t know it then, but it was the moment he won the Masters.

That’s the shot that made McIroy just the fourth man to defend his Masters title – joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo – notable, given that most historic moments anyone can think of at 12th are defined by heartbreak, not triumph.

McIlroy, by the way, has never hit it into the water on the 12th.

It was also a microcosm of McIlroy’s remarkable longevity. Never one to turn down information, McIlroy has constantly evolved and devolved with every passing tournament, depending on the result. It’s what sent him into his 10-year tailspin searching for another major, accumulating more scar tissue than he knew what to do with. It’s also what brought him out of it, forced to become a far more complete player than he ever was when winning major championships by eight shots, adding shots to his arsenal like the one he hit at the 12th.

As the sun sets on McIlroy’s second Masters, that’s what will stick with me. Gone is the emotional baggage that plagued McIlroy. He shirked some of it after his first green jacket, but the rest of his 2025 told us he was still unsettled, unsure of what was next. This Masters, and the joy it clearly brought him as he threw his hands into the air, belting joyful roars and wilting into his parents’ arms, is what’s next. When you stop looking for something you're trying so desperately to find, you often stumble into it.

McIlroy’s major tally is now up to six, tied for the most by a European player. It seems only a matter of time before he will pass Nick Faldo and sit alone at the top of that list. What else is possible? It's all on the table, and to avoid making any statements I regret, we’ll leave it at that for now …

Playing through

• McIlroy's past major blunders were the reason he won ...
• Justin Rose authored yet another spirited chapter in his perpetual pursuit of the green jacket. Read how he reacted to another close call at a Masters title ...
• 💰 Rory McIlroy earned 750 FedExCup points and $4.5 million of a record purse of $22.5 million for his sixth career major and 30th PGA TOUR title. See what everyone took home from Augusta ...

No McIlroy-Scheffler duel ... yet

Don’t be fooled by the Wikipedia box years from now.

Yes, Rory McIlroy beat Scottie Scheffler by a shot to win the 2026 Masters. But this was not a duel down the stretch between two of the best players of their generation, who now possess 10 majors and four green jackets between them.

Scheffler’s Friday stumbles proved too big of a hill for him to climb, and McIlroy’s momentary anxiety off the tee on the 72nd hole gave way to a relatively simple bogey for the one-shot win. Much like for Tiger Woods in 2019, the margin on the final leaderboard makes it seem like there was more drama ringing the final green than the patrons truly felt.

But that doesn’t mean that a bona fide rivalry between the two men is out of the question.

Scheffler and McIlroy have undoubtedly separated themselves, having now won four of the last five majors dating back to last year’s Masters. They’ve also traded spots on Augusta National's white leaderboard, with McIlroy finishing (a deceptively close) second to Scheffler in 2022 only for the American to return the favor this week.

“I’ve competed against him for a long time, and you don’t win the amount of tournaments that he’s won out here without being pretty resilient,” Scheffler said Sunday. “Rory won the last two Masters and I clipped some majors last year. I think the major championships bring out the best in me sometimes, and I had some good starts last year and obviously had a good week this week.

All told, Scheffler and McIlroy have finished first or second 12 times in the 17 majors played since 2022. They’ve racked up a whopping 24 top-10 finishes in majors across that same span: 13 for Scheffler, including six straight, and 11 for McIlroy. At this point, there’s a better chance that they’ll end the week on the first page of the leaderboard at the biggest events than anywhere else.

While we were deprived of a true Scheffler-McIlroy duel this time around, the likes of which Paul Hodowanic called for on Thursday, there’s every reason to anticipate that either (or both) will be in the mix next month when Scheffler defends his PGA Championship title at Aronimink Golf Club. And next spring, when McIlroy goes for an unprecedented three in a row in Augusta, Scheffler will likely have something to say about it as he looks to match the fastest path ever to a third green jacket.

A year from now, Scheffler and McIlroy will join a select group at the champions’ dinner in Augusta while they toast McIlroy’s back-to-back achievements. But if recent history is any indicator, there’s a good chance that they could have another major championship head-to-head battle as a discussion topic over dinner.

Parting shots

• 👴 How about this for a stat ... Scottie Scheffler is the first player since World War II to play bogey-free at the Masters over the third and final rounds. The PR folks at the Masters didn't say who, so that's how I'll be spending my Monday ...
• 🕰️ At 36, Rory McIlroy is the oldest player to win the same major championship in back-to-back years since Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open in 1950 and 1951 at 37 and 38. Decent company.
• A massive shoutout to Collin Morikawa, who gained a ton of respect in my book. You only needed to watch one swing of his this week to know he wasn't healthy. Yet he finished T7. In my book, it's his most impressive major performance since he won the 2021 Open Championship.
• Was this Justin Rose's last chance to win the Masters? My heart says no, my head has other thoughts. If Rose wins a future Masters, he is guaranteed to be older than Jack Nicklaus was in 1986.
• 🎟️ Max Homa punched his ticket to the 2027 Masters via his third consecutive top-12 finish at Augusta National. See who else earned a return trip next April ...
• The scenes on the second nine late on Sunday afternoon were special. A baked-out Augusta National created this dusty hue that set quite the dramatic backdrop for the closing stretch. I'll remember that for a long time.