Rory McIlroy wins the Masters for second yr in a row : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5831x3888+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F91%2F76%2F1baa0fbb45388c7b248fc8098daa%2Fap26102859652302.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5831x3888+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F91%2F76%2F1baa0fbb45388c7b248fc8098daa%2Fap26102859652302.jpg" class="img" alt="Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, holds the trophy after winning the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Augusta, Ga." fetchpriority="high"/> Rory McIlroy, of Northern Eire, holds the trophy after successful the Masters golf match on the Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. Ashley Landis/AP disguise caption

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Ashley Landis/AP AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy is the Masters champion once more, this time with out falling to his knees on the 18th inexperienced and sobbing over lastly reaching his lifelong dream.

That did not make Sunday at Augusta Nationwide any simpler.

McIlroy coughed up a six-shot lead within the third spherical. He fell two photographs behind two gamers, Cameron Younger and Justin Rose, in an electrical closing spherical. After which he delivered two large birdies round Amen Nook to affix extra elite firm.

A yr in the past, his playoff victory over Rose made McIlroy solely the sixth participant with the profession Grand Slam. With one other inexperienced jacket, McIlroy joined Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the one repeat winners of the Masters.

"I believed it was so tough to win final yr due to making an attempt to win the Masters and the Grand Slam, after which this yr I spotted it is simply actually tough to win the Masters," McIlroy stated after holding on for a one-shot victory over Scottie Scheffler. "Simply unimaginable."

As traditional, he stored everybody on edge till the very finish.

His wedge barely cleared the false entrance of the par-5 fifteenth, a shot that would have been disastrous. His putt from behind the sixteenth inexperienced made a pointy flip down the slope to inches away save par. He saved par with a tricky chip on the seventeenth. Staked to a two-shot lead, his tee shot on the 18th wound up nearer to the tenth fairway.

"I would say strolling off the 18th tee not realizing the place my ball was, that was the second of biggest stress," McIlroy stated.

He drilled 8-iron across the bushes right into a bunker, blasted out to 12 ft and took two putts for bogey and a 1-under 71. He thrust each arms within the air and made good on a promise.

"My parting message final yr was I can not wait to come back again and put the jacket on myself," McIlroy stated on the trophy presentation. "I wasn't fairly appropriate."

For the primary time since Woods received back-to-back in 2002, it was left to the Augusta Nationwide chairman — Hootie Johnson for Woods, Fred Ridley for McIlroy — to do the honors. "It nonetheless matches," McIlroy stated.

Higher than ever.

He now has six majors, tied with Faldo, Lee Trevino and Phil Mickelson. And that sense of freedom he introduced again to Augusta Nationwide as a champion carried him to the end line.

McIlroy seized management for good with a daring shot over Rae's Creek to 7 ft for birdie on the par-3 twelfth. Then he blistered a 350-yard drive on the par-5 thirteenth — he had been within the bushes the earlier three rounds — that arrange one other birdie to maneuver three photographs forward.

He completed at 12-under 276.

President Donald Trump congratulated McIlroy on social media as he flew again to Washington from Florida.

"With annually, Rory is changing into an increasing number of a LEGEND!" Trump wrote. McIlroy's subsequent match is prone to be the Cadillac Championship in two weeks at Trump Doral exterior Miami.

It was extra heartache for Rose, and frustration for the others who had an opportunity.

Rose had a two-shot lead that evaporated round Amen Nook with two bogeys and a three-putt par. He needed to accept a 3rd shut name on the Masters.

Younger misplaced his two-shot lead a lot earlier with an extended three-putt bogey on the par-3 sixth and taking bogey on the subsequent gap when he hit wedge from the golf green right into a bunker. One shot behind going to the again 9, Younger closed with 9 straight pars.

"There isn't any unfavourable to remove apart from clearly I'd've beloved a special end result," Younger stated. "I just about had a birdie likelihood on each gap and did not make any. That is the way it goes typically."

As for Scheffler, the world's No. 1 participant was in place to shatter the Masters report with the most important 36-hole comeback in historical past. He was 12 behind going into the weekend. He was two photographs behind as he approached the flip. However he ran off 11 straight pars, and that wasn't going to chop it throughout a closing spherical with accessible pins to create pleasure.

Scheffler needed to accept his third runner-up end within the majors to go together with 4 titles. His 65-68 weekend made him the primary participant since 1942 to go bogey-free on the weekend at Augusta.

"I put up struggle so as to give myself an opportunity," Scheffler stated.

Rose, at age 45 making an attempt to turn out to be the second-oldest Masters champion behind Jack Nicklaus (46) in 1986, made a most unbelievable birdie with a shot out of the bushes to a foot on the seventh. That was the beginning of three straight birdies to shut out the entrance 9 and provides him the lead.

However his method to the eleventh was effectively to the fitting and he failed to avoid wasting par. His tee shot on the twelfth was lengthy, and his delicate chip did not attain the inexperienced, main to a different bogey. And his 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 thirteenth ran 8 ft by the opening and he missed the birdie putt.

"Likelihood that acquired away," Rose stated. "I used to be not at all free and clear and was nowhere form of near having the job accomplished, however I used to be proper in place. ... I used to be enjoying nice, however simply momentum shifted for me across the Amen Nook."

That is the place McIlroy thrived. No shot at Augusta is extra terrifying that the par-3 twelfth with the misleading, swirling wind. McIlroy stated he thought again to a follow spherical at his first Masters in 2009 when Tom Watson advised him to attend for the fitting wind and hit.

His three-quarter 9-iron aimed on the center bunker drifted extra to the fitting that he imagined, nevertheless it turned out excellent, nearer than anybody all day.

"That was a extremely good golf shot on the proper time," he stated. "Big shot within the match."

As soon as stricken by his chase for the inexperienced jacket, McIlroy is now a two-time winner whose love for the Masters solely deepens.

He was so ecstatic a yr in the past that he requested the media when it was over, "What are we going to speak about subsequent yr?" Now the subject is simple. Nobody has ever received three in a row.

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Rory McIlroy wins the Masters for second yr in a row : NPR

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