Mark Wiedmer
My daughter Julia Caroline called 10 days ago, her voice filled with excitement. “Have you seen Poppy’s putt?” she shouted into the phone, referring to four-year-old Poppy McIlroy, professional golfer Rory McIlroy’s daughter. “I think it’s an omen. I think Rory’s going to win the Masters.”
The Poppy putt she referred to came on the 9th hole of Augusta National’s par 3 course in the Par Three Tournament that precedes the Masters each Wednesday before the tournament begins. With a putting touch as deft as her dad’s ever displayed, Poppy dropped a 25-foot downhill putt on a surface as slick as polished concrete. The crowd roared almost as loud as it did five days later, when Poppy’s dad slipped on a size 38 regular green jacket for the first time after 16 failed tries.
And as the sun disappeared from last Sunday’s Augusta, Georgia, sky, one of the Golf Channel’s talking heads asked his fellow broadcast brothers the following question: “Has any family ever had a better week?”
Moreover, when has the sport of golf ever had a better feel-good week?
It seems that everywhere you went this past week, the conversation returned to Rory’s fifth major championship, which put him the rather rare company of Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Gene Sarazin and Tiger Woods as the only men to win the career Grand Slam (British Open, Masters, PGA Championship and US Open) at least once.
Even the man who made golf universally popular and has a drink of iced tea and lemonade named after him — Arnold Palmer — never won the PGA. But now the 35-year-old McIlroy has done just that, and seemingly captured the emotions of the nation, if not the whole world, by doing so.
“I haven’t seen this much excitement about a Masters winner since Jack (Nicklaus) in 1986 or Tiger (Woods) in 1997,” said Henrik Simonsen, the longtime Director of Golf at the Honors Course. “And even then, this is different. When Jack and Tiger were in their prime, once they got the lead, it was over. You knew they’d win. With Rory, he’s all over the place. Great shots. Bad shots. We all know what that’s like. Rory’s an open book. And I think it makes everybody identify with him. I know at the Honors Course, that was one of the slowest Sundays we’ve ever had, and I think it was because everybody was watching it at home.”
Indeed, now that the television ratings are in, more people, 12.7 million people in fact, watched Sunday’s final round than had watched a final round of the Masters since 2018 (Augusta native and dark knight Patrick Reed). But that was just the average. An estimated 19-plus million viewers were tuned in to Rory’s tournament-clinching putt at 18 on his first playoff hole against Justin Rose. For perspective on that, only a few NFL football games draw more viewers than that. Another perspective: Duke’s Final Four loss to Houston a week earlier — the most watched game of the 2025 tourney and the most watched NCAA tourney game since 2017 — drew less than one million viewers more than that 19-plus viewers at its peak.
“Quite a bit of conversation among our members this week, certainly more than normal about a Masters tournament,” Black Creek director of golf Jordan Douglas said on Saturday morning. “I think history is part of it, I think. Getting to see Rory become only the sixth golfer to win the career Grand Slam is a pretty big deal. Then the final round itself. So many ups and downs. Then a sudden death. It was wonderful television. And Rory’s a very popular golfer, maybe the most popular golfer in the world. I think this could be the kind of event golf needs to pick up some popularity again worldwide.”
For all those who’ve ridden the “Rory Coaster” (ESPN’s wonderful turn of phrase) of McIlroy’s spectacularly up-and-down career, it’s certainly an apt theory. Rory’ overcoming his own demons, falling to the “sacred ground” of Augusta’s 18th green as CBS announcer Jim Nantz called it, overcome with emotional tears, is certainly the stuff fans eat up.
And Simonsen is right that everyone who’s ever flubbed a wedge into water — as McIlroy did on No. 13 on Sunday — can see themselves in McIlroy’s final round. He’s human, vulnerable, even a bit fragile at times, just like the rest of us. And to see him triumph over that, to slay his Masters monsters, is the stuff that will be discussed for years, if not decades, by those who were there and those who watched.
Even Rory later admitted, “There were points on the back nine today when I thought, ‘Have I let it slip again?’
How could he not? After it was over, after he’d become the first person to ever post four double-bogeys over four rounds of the Masters and still win, after he’d blown a second four-stroke lead on a Sunday back nine, yet somehow lived to tell the tale, unlike a very similar collapse 11 years ago, you had to shake your head at the intestinal fortitude to survive such self-made drama.
But that’s always been the Rory Coaster, feast or famine, triumph or tragedy.
Less than an hour after Rory won, Nicklaus appeared on the Golf Channel. A self-professed “Big fan of Rory,” the Golden Bear said of that final back nine at Augusta, a back nine he so often mastered,
“He hit some remarkable shots, just remarkable, both at 15 and 17, Nicklaus. “And then he hit some shots like at 13 (the wedge in the water) where you just say, ‘What are you doing?’ It takes a really talented player to win with some of the shots Rory hit.”
That he is. His approach shots at 15 and 17 will go down as two of best clutch shots ever hit at Augusta. So, too, his playoff approach at 18, the one that rolled backward to within three feet of the hole.
Those three shots, under enormous pressure, are as good as any ever struck to claim the green jacket.
“You have to be an eternal optimist,” said McIlroy Sunday evening as he addressed the media. “This is the best day of my golfing life. I’ve literally made my dreams come true.”
Most dreams, even for a golfer as skilled as McIlroy, take years of hard, unseen, unappreciated work to come true.
At one point after his win, McIlroy addressed Poppy, tears filling his eyes as they had when he first one.
“My family knows the burden I’ve carried to come here every year and try and try and try again,” he began. "The one thing I would say to my daughter, Poppy, who’s sitting over there: Never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up on your dreams. Keep coming back, keep working hard, and if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.”
With the burden of winning the Masters now behind him, with his place in history now secure, it will be interesting to see where the Rory Coaster ends. Will it be double-digit majors? Will there be another double-digit drought in years before his next major? Will he avoid all the human frailties and injuries that tamed Tiger?
Who knows. But this much has certainly become known over the past week: Will Dehmel, an intern at Golf Digest was sent to Augusta to write about the Masters. A football player in college, Dehmel knew little about golf, but had a gift for the written word.
After Rory’s win, Dehmel wrote this:
“I never understood why patrons lined up outside a gate in Augusta, Ga., at 4 a.m. for a few consecutive days every April. I never understood why my friend flew (late Friday night) to Georgia, only to wake up early and speed walk through impossibly green grass for a slim chance to throw down a folding chair at the 16th tee — or for the slim chance to be right there when McIlroy crumpled to the sacred sod.
“I never understood what the craze was all about. And unlike Rory, I never will. But I fell in love watching it.”
For the past week, haven’t we all.
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Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@mccallie.org