My Three Thoughts - The 2025 Masters
Rory McIlroy has won the Masters and the Career Grand Slam, so what will we talk about next year?
Not only is this report hours late, but I will never forget how sick I was when I tried to write this the first time. Thank you for your patience and understanding on this matter. I am sure solid foods will stay down again someday soon.
“We just got to see our 1986 Masters.”
For those of us who did not care about golf in 1986 but have since changed our minds, I believe hardly a year goes by when someone won’t relive those moments like it was the most amazing thing they ever got to witness. They tell the stories of Jack charging back from T9 on Saturday night and shooting a closing round 65 to win his 6th Green Jacket, becoming the oldest champion to ever win.
His door had closed, and nobody could believe that Jack had one more in him. But, of course, since he had 18 major wins, it probably was silly to rule him out at age 46. There were just few indicators that he could beat the heavyweights of the day. He did, and there are those who will claim it is still the greatest thing they have seen.
Now, I didn’t come up with that comparison—that was my friends at No Laying Up—because for me it’s more about judging it against 1996, my first Masters where I was really locked in, as Greg Norman yakked away (risky to use that term today) a huge lead and the win to Nick Faldo—or 2019, when Tiger Woods somehow won another major over a decade since his last.
But there is a reason why some of us count the four golf major Sundays as some of our happiest days of each year. Because we know that something is likely to happen, and it just might also be something we talk about for the rest of our lives.
I don’t think recaps and anecdotes about yesterday will ever grow tired of this historic day, when Rory was finally able to walk the tightrope of disaster to the finish line and finally win a Masters Green Jacket in his 17th attempt.
And these are probably my main Three Thoughts:
It was supposed to be Rory vs Bryson, II. It was supposed to be match play on Sunday at the Masters with the final group only and for the first hour it looked like another painful collapse from the Irishman. Then Bryson fizzled out and before long it looked like it might just be a processional parade around Augusta National where Rory was going to win by five or more. But, then, when we least expected it, drama hit us like a truck on the second nine (don’t you ever call it the back nine, mister!) and it was on.
McIlroy is one of the most talented players who has ever lived. For a guy his size to be able to hit the ball that far and well is ridiculous. It should not be possible.