At The Masters, golfers from both the PGA and the LIV tour competed in the first and most important major of the year. The Masters is the Superbowl of golf and for one week of the year commands the attention of the country. Last year’s winner, Rory McIlroy put on the green jacket and completed the Grand Slam after an intense Sunday that included a playoff on hole 18. This year felt like deja vu as McIlroy went back to back winning his 6th major championship and second Masters.
On day one of the Masters, many players got off to a hot start. McIlroy and Sam Burns ended the day in the lead at five under par shooting a 67. Players like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose also had a good day finishing two under par and shooting a 70.
Day one also included opening round disappointments for notable players like Bryson Dechambeau who shot a 76 and Cameron Young who shot a 73. After day one a Rory repeat looked likely.
On day two of the tournament McIlroy continued to dominate while the rest of the leaderboard stayed stagnant. McIlroy shot 65 on the day and extended his lead with a score of 12 under. The next closest person to him was Burns who ended the day with a 71, making him six under through the tournament and six shots behind McIlroy. Scheffler also fell behind after ending the day being 2 over bringing his score to even going into Saturday. Young fought back after a tough day one and ended four under heading into Saturday.
Moving day at the Masters seemed to be the most exciting day of the tournament. Early on Scheffler made a move when he went 5 under through the first nine then went on to finish seven under and giving himself a spot at contention on Saturday as long as McIlroy didn’t extend his lead any further. Young also had a good day, being able to fly all the way into second place at 11 under and had to hope for a McIlroy meltdown. A McIlroy meltdown is exactly what happened as Rory went one over on Saturday and went into championship Sunday tied with Young after having a six shot lead at the beginning of the day.
Championship Sunday became one of the most memorable in recent memory since the leaderboard was packed with contenders within a few shots of each other. Young and McIlroy were at the top with a score of 11 under, Burns was in second at 10 under, Shane Lowry in third at nine under, Jason Day and Rose tied for fourth at eight under, then Scheffler and Haotong Li rounded out the real contenders at seven under at the start of the day. The leaderboard moved up and down all day with different people leading each hole. Young led early as McIlroy struggled through the first nine and even fell into fourth place at nine under after he bogeyed hole four and six. As McIlroy started his battle back Young started his fall out of the lead and Rose took it from him for a few holes before McIlroy would reclaim the lead with only Scheffler in contention going into the final holes. Scheffler had a solid day and got to 11 under, two behind McIlroy going into hole 16. Scheffler gave it a solid effort to tie McIlroy but wasn’t able to get any birdies and finished the tournament 11 under and was hoping for two bogeys from McIlroy. Down the stretch Rory looked solid and preparations for a repeat ceremony began as he was in the 18th tee box with a two shot lead, he only needed to get a bogey to win the Masters. On 18 he hit a bad drive then hit into the sand and got the hopes of Scheffler fans high, but McIlroy did not crumble and was able to two putt winning the Masters by one shot and repeating for the first time since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002.
This Masters was one of the best since Tigers returned to glory in 2019. The tournament had big leads, big comebacks, and a nail biting finish that led to Rory making History by winning back to back. The only thing that would have made this Masters an instant classic was a playoff between McIlroy and Scheffler. All golf fans continued to root for McIlroy to double bogey the last hole because one extra hole at the Masters is the best experience in sports. Luckily golf fans always have next year to look forward to hearing those famous words from Jim Nantz, “Hello Friends”.
