With a chance to win the 2025 Masters, Rory McIlroy stood over a four-foot birdie putt in the first playoff hole and rolled the ball straight into the bottom of the cup. Instantly, he dropped his putter and fell to his knees, flooded with emotions as he buried his face in his hands. Tears of joy, anguish, relief—name it—he experienced it all in one round.

The journey to become a Masters champion and the sixth player to earn a career Grand Slam was long and arduous for Rory. The path alone would break 99.99% of the athletes who tried to emulate it.

Go back to the 18th hole when he carried a one-shot lead and buried his approach in the sand. Then sent his par putt wide to allow Justin Rose back into the competition. Go back to the 13th when his then four-shot lead suffered a major blow when he found the creek on his third shot and scored a seven. Go back to the opening hole when he started the round with a two-shot lead and made double-bogey.

Rory McIlroy has been one of the dominant players in golf over the last decade, along with Scottie Sheffler, Jon Rahm, and a few others. Yet McIlroy hadn’t won a major since 2014 when he topped Phil Mickelson by one stroke to hoist the PGA Championship, his second major of that year. Since then, in the majors, he finished second four times, including the previous two U.S Opens. He also finished in the top-ten twenty-one times, and was top-five in three out of four majors in 2022.

Last year’s collapse at the U.S. Open nearly broke him.

With a two-shot lead and three holes to go, he missed two par putts within four feet and lost the title to Bryson DeChambeau. The lasting images were of him jetting straight to his car and exiting the club without speaking to anyone.

Recently, McIlroy has been dealing with personal conflicts: a near-divorce that became public for its rapid turnaround as well as the challenges of being the sacrificial spokesperson for the PGA, who became somewhat thrown under a bus after the announced merger with LIV. Add to that mountain of pressure the questions of when he’ll win another major.

Eleven years is an incredible amount of time. Nearly a third of his life. Especially for an athlete whose window of opportunity gets smaller with every passing year.

Something kept McIlroy from self-destruction during the final round of the Masters. Every time he faltered, he rebounded to produce some of the greatest shots of the tournament. His second shot on the 15th was legendary.

After his victory, he spoke about his connection to Dr. Bob Rotella, whose work has been featured previously in this blog from his book How Champions Think. Even the best athletes make mistakes, but what separates champions from the rest of the field is how they remain present. Rotella often ruminates on focusing on the performance process not the result and to make your next shot your best shot, also the title of his most recent book.

Justin Rose, who played himself out of the lead the day before, rallied to shoot the lowest score of the day and tie McIlroy after 72 holes. The experienced Brit carried the momentum heading into the playoff as well as the persona of being a clutch performer with numerous Ryder Cup wins and the 2013 U.S. Open title at Merion.

At the start of the playoff hole, Rory was playing more than Rose. Many would say he was playing against the demons trying to tarnish his own legacy. Others might say he was playing against himself.

How did he respond?

He drove the center of the fairway then drilled an approach to within three feet of the hole, setting up one of the defining moments in his career.