They are not “spectators;” they are “patrons.” It is not called a “sand trap;” it is a “bunker.” These are just a few of the guidelines that have preserved tradition year after year at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. This past weekend April 9 to April 12, 91 golfers teed off in Augusta in pursuit of the illustrious green jacket awarded to the winner.
There are dozens of ways to earn a spot in the field of competition at the Masters, including being the Spanish, Japan, Hong Kong, South African and Australian Open Champion; being a PGA or U.S. Open Champion in the last five years; coming in top 12 at the Masters in the previous year; and finally, anyone who has ever won the Masters is welcome to return to the tournament.
Last year, Rory McIlroy bested Justin Rose in a one hole playoff after they finished the tournament tied to don his first-ever green jacket: an accomplishment years in the making for McIlroy. The Irishman came into the week as one of the key favorites to win along with world number one golfer Scottie Scheffler and 2023 Masters Champion Jon Rahm. Winning back-to-back Masters is a rare feat that has only been done three times. Jack Nicklaus won consecutive tournaments in 1965 and 1966, Nick Faldo repeated in 1989 and 1990, and then Tiger Woods was the third to complete the feat in 2001 and 2002. For McIlroy to join this short list of legends, he would have to be at his best this year.
The Masters, as with all major golf tournaments, has four rounds—Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday—with the top half of the leaderboard remaining in play for the final two rounds. Each competitor plays the same 18 holes every day of the tournament with scores aggregating throughout the days. After play closed on Friday, the cutoff line was set at +5 with all players at five above par or worse eliminated from competition. Among others, J.J. Spaun missed the cut by just a shot after having won the Valero Texas Open days earlier.
With the field dwindled down to just 54, the leaderboard remained tight at the top. Having shot 67 and 65 in the first two rounds, respectively, McIlroy went into the latter half of the tournament 12-under with a six-shot lead on Patrick Reed and Sam Burns who were tied for second at six-under. No golfer has ever had a lead that large going into the weekend, and only four defending champions had ever held a lead after 36 holes going into Saturday: McIlroy was playing at his best, but Saturday is not called “moving day” for no reason—historically, the third round of play at the Masters sees large movement within the leaderboard. Players at the top play more defensively, and those in the hunt turn the aggression up a notch.
This year, “moving day” was an apt title for the third round of play in Augusta. Of all the movers, Cameron Young stood out. Fresh off a win at the Players Tournament in early March, Young’s first round at the Masters was a slump: he shot a 73, lowlighted by a 40 on his front nine holes. Young finished the first round tied for 33rd. He put together a much stronger Friday, shooting a 67 and getting himself comfortable ahead of the cut. On Saturday, Young accelerated even more, shooting a 65 on top of eight birdies. Young’s 65 on Saturday tied Scheffler—who remained on the attack—for the lowest score of the round. Scheffler combined for five under par from holes six to nine on Saturday. All the while, McIlroy was stuck playing defense. He bogeyed his first hole and then remained in neutral until a double bogey on the 11th hole, and a bogey on the 12th allowed Young to take the sole lead. After hours of shuffling around atop the leaderboard, McIlroy and Young would enter the final round of play tied for first at 11 under par. Sitting in a nearby third was Sam Burns, whose bogey-free third round had him close the day at 10-under.
Sunday at the Masters was as beautiful as always, and with six players sitting within three strokes of the lead, the drama was guaranteed. Scheffler stayed pushing and closed his Sunday with a 68 to total 11-under after playing the final two rounds of the tournament bogey-free. After birdieing on the third hole, McIlroy began slipping—he added two strokes between the third and sixth holes. In the same time frame, Cam Young took a two-shot lead before sliding back down to second after bogeying twice in a row on holes six and seven. Quietly but surely, 2025 runner-up Justin Rose crept atop the Masters leaderboard, shaving three strokes off his score on the front nine to take the sole lead.
On the second nine of the final round, Young scored par on every hole, solidifying a strong third-place finish. Scottie Scheffler’s final 36 holes locked him into a second-place finish. At the end of the day, it was Amen’s Corner—holes 11, 12 and 13—that sealed this year’s results. With Rose, McIlroy, Russell Henley, and Young notching a -12, -11 and a pair of -10s, respectively, the fight for the top spot was still very much alive. With birdies on holes 12 and 13, McIlroy held a strong score of -13 going into the last six holes. Over the same two holes, Rose scored a pair of bogeys to fall behind by a lethal three strokes.
Heading into the final three holes, McIlroy stayed steady at thirteen-under, and with Rose’s and Young’s failure to nail a handful of birdie putts to move him closer to the lead on fifteen and sixteen, the only thing standing between McIlroy and another green jacket was himself. Rose scored a bogey on 17 to move him to ten-under.
Going into the 18th hole, McIlroy sat at thirteen-under with Scheffler’s eleven-under remaining as the next-closest score. With a two-stroke lead, McIlroy entered the 18th tee box with enough leeway to slip up a bit and still prevail. As if on cue, the Irishman sliced his drive into the trees off to the right of the fairway. McIlroy commented, “There wasn’t much to say [to caddie Harry Diamond], I think we were both just hoping that my ball wasn’t in a really bad spot or behind a tree. I was just hoping that I had a swing.” Was Rory about to trip over his own feet and hand the tournament to Scheffler? McIlroy’s second shot got him out of the woods and into the bunker next to the green. His chances hinged on whether he could get a clean shot out of the bunker. With his third shot on the par-four final hole, McIlroy managed to find the green, giving him two putts to win the tournament. His putt for par veered to the right of the hole, about a foot out, leaving McIlroy one last stroke to clinch a victory. With a swing of the club, the ball trickled into the 18th hole: Rory McIlroy was crowned 2026 Masters Champion and just the fourth golfer to win the event in back-to-back years.
Rory McIlroy spent over a decade waiting to complete the golf grand slam, pursuing a green jacket that seemed to allude him year after year. But after finally winning his first last year, it took him just 365 days to win his second and join the exclusive club of consecutive winners. Has Rory McIlroy just reached his peak, or is he beginning the next era of golf domination?