Rory McIlroy is Masters king and major royalty, a choke artist no more | Commentary

AUGUSTA, Ga. – He’s a golf legend now. He goes from being a Masters winner to Masters royalty.

That’s what this championship means.

He’s not a Masters choke artist anymore. That’s so passé.

Rory McIlroy rules Augusta National, and he’ll keep the crown, thank you kindly.

Rory repeat. Rory reigns. Rory renaissance.

Across the course, you could hear Rory roars from the gallery once he got cooking just before the turn.

“Absolutely delighted to be able to get it done,” McIlroy said, after winning with a score of 12-under, one ahead of Scottie Scheffler.

McIlroy once went more than a decade between major championships. Now, he has two here in 12 months, and his game looks sharp, his nerves steelier than ever.

Two rounds into this tournament, it looked like McIlroy might run away with this. Nobody was better in Round 1. Nobody was better in Round 2. Plenty were better in Round 3.

McIlroy put in the legwork Thursday and Friday to establish a six-stroke lead. His moving day wobble meant he’d need to be good on Sunday. He wasn’t great on the final day. He was good. Good enough to win at a place so special to him.

“This place feels like my home course,” he said.

That he’d wind up having to fight to defend his turf makes the repeat all the more impressive.

Cameron Young, Russell Henley, Justin Rose and Scheffler came for the North Irishman’s Richmond County throne. They didn’t have enough juice – in part, because McIlroy put red ink on the card in Amen Corner, after a roller-coaster front nine.

With this Masters hanging on the high wire, the defending champion stuffed a 9-iron to 7 feet on No. 12. The putt, pure. Birdie.

His birdie putt on No. 13 swirled the back of the cup and dropped. And all the Rors fans said, amen.

On No. 18, McIlroy needed a bogey-five to win it. He tapped in at five, threw back his head and celebrated as champions do, and the crowd that loves him here chanted, “Rory! Rory! Rory!”

McIlroy’s triumph last year changed his status at Augusta National. He got a green jacket and a parking spot in the Mercedes-filled champions parking lot next to the clubhouse. He got a stall inside the champions locker room and a seat at the annual champions dinner.

That victory meant everything to McIlroy. He so adores this course and this major’s history and traditions. A green jacket unlocked access to bits and bites of Augusta National for which McIlroy pined.

With access to the champions dinner perpetually secure in his back pocket, McIlroy looked the perfect blend of confident but relaxed all week.

No matter what happened in this encore, he owned a green jacket, and he had the career Grand Slam.

This win won’t change his access here. It does elevate and enshrine his status, though.

Dozens of players have won a Masters championship.

Fewer than 20 have won it twice.

McIlroy is now one of them.

Tradition here says the previous Masters winner slips the green jacket on the new winner’s shoulders.

Traditions sometimes require a backup plan, because McIlroy made sure there was no new winner. McIlroy joins Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as back-to-back Masters champions. That’s a who’s who of golf.

With hat tip to Faldo – you were brilliant, Sir – McIlroy probably deserves acclaim as the best golfer in Europe’s history.

“It’s a cool conversation to be a part of,” McIlroy acknowledged.

He’s even with Faldo’s six majors. He’s tied with Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino, too.

Jack Nicklaus was 46 years old when he got his final Masters win. Tiger was 43.

That’s to say, no reason to think McIlroy is done winning.

McIlroy referred to himself “a wily old veteran” this week, and when you consider this was his 18th career start on this plot of land, that’s true. And yet, at 36 years old, he’s in his prime.

McIlroy can do this again. That’s what you must realize. Perhaps, he can do it again here more than once.

Put this bee in your bonnet 12 months out: Nobody’s won the Masters three years in a row.

Before the tournament, McIlroy said that, of the four majors, he thought he was best suited to win the Masters again at some point in his career.

Who knew he meant this year?

“I can’t believe I waited 17 years to get one green jacket,” McIlroy said from Butler Cabin, “and I get two in a row.”

He spoke early this week as if the pressure was less intense in this repeat bid than throughout the first triumph, when he successfully exorcised the demons that tormented him in 2011 and ’18. If he’d squandered another lead in 2025, the Augusta choker label would’ve gotten firmly affixed to him.

No matter what happened this week, “I know I can go to the champions locker room, put my green jacket on and have a Coke Zero at the end of the day,” McIlroy said, days before the tournament started.

He probably meant that, too, but the pressure revived in the final two rounds, and he survived it. The 38 Regular must feel great on his shoulders as a two-time victor. The post-round beverage must taste so sweet, even if that beverage is something stronger than a Coke Zero.

“I’ll probably have a sore head flying back to Florida tomorrow morning,” he quipped.

Bottoms up, and toast to this: Nobody can dispute McIlroy is a master of the Masters and forever a legend of golf.