Bryan Nicholson for First.com
Rory McIlroy sealed his place in the record books by donning the ‘green jacket’ at the 17th time of asking. The 35-year-old fell over the line in the 89th edition of the prestigious Masters tournament. The Northern Irishman will now go down in golfing folklore as one of the greatest of all time. McIlroy had been second favorite to win the 2025 Masters before a ball was struck, battling for favoritism with Scottie Scheffler.
Just who the best of the best is will always be up for debate but McIlroy cements his place alongside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods as the only players to win the career grand slam and etch their names into the golfing hall of fame.
With Masters victory Rory finally completed the grand slam 11 years after winning his last major. It was a long drought for McIlroy, and he was feeling the pressure. In 2014 McIlroy won the US PGA Championship at Valhalla. He lifted the Claret Jug following Open Championship success at Royal Liverpool just one month before where he went wire-to-wire.
At this time McIlroy already had two major championship trophies tucked away in his cabinet; a US Open win came in 2011 at Congressional, followed by his first PGA Championship win on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in 2012.
Now McIlroy moves up the list of players with the most major championship victories. He joins Brooks Koepka on five majors ahead of the likes of Ernie Els and Vijay Singh who have won four and three majors respectively. He is one behind Phil Mickelson’s tally of six major titles.
Mickelson’s chance at the career grand slam comes at the US Open from Oakmont. The veteran has been runner up in the US Open a record six times and he needs to claim his national Open to join McIlroy amongst golfing royalty.
McIlroy’s Masters win made it 29 PGA Tour wins and in terms of international players, only Vijay Singh has more PGA Tour titles to his name (34).
McIlroy had come unstuck at Augusta before. Ahead by four going into the final round in the 2011 Masters renewal, a fresh faced Rors would let it slip and hand the green jacket to Charl Schwartzel. The man from the Emerald Isle claims this upset paved the way for him to win future majors but what was to unfold before he joined the pantheon of golfing greats may not come as a surprise to many.
In the 2025 Masters, McIlroy looked great heading down the stretch when the nerves really kicked in at the end of Amen Corner, a trio of holes he had seemingly got through unscathed. A run of the mill pitch on hole number 13 came up short leaving the Irishman wet and it would result in a double bogey, opening the door for players like Ludvig Aberg and Justin Rose.
The Englishman duly birdied number 18 and posted an 11-under par total but McIlroy would have a shot in hand going down his final hole after two career approaches on holes number 15 and 17 led to birdies. Nerves got the better of him once again though as he flared a short wedge approach into the right greenside bunker and failed to get up and down for par.
An eventual playoff with Justin Rose was the outcome but McIlroy was determined to get over the line. He made an excellent birdie on the first playoff hole to mark his fifth major win and enter the grand slam books.
This prompted Tiger Woods to have his say on social media declaring: “Your determination during this round, and this entire journey has shown through, and now you’re part of history.”
It isn’t easy to gauge who is the greatest golfer of all time with six golfing Gods now having achieved the grand slam, largely hailing from different generations, while several other elite players have been unable to achieve this feat. The last man to win golf’s grand slam was Tiger Woods, 25 years ago.
Sir Nick Faldo reckons McIlroy is now “the fifth greatest player of all time” and that “achieving the grand slam puts you in a different category”. It is hard to argue with Faldo who himself is one of the game’s best players alongside European counterpart Seve Ballesteros.
It was obvious how much a Masters victory that came with a place in golfing immortality meant to McIlroy and no one could deny him. McIlroy is undoubtedly one of the best players of his generation with six DP World Tour Race to Dubai titles to his name. He is the only golfer to win three FedEx Cups on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy has now achieved everything he wanted in the game, with his 2025 Masters win marking his 44th professional victory. He has spent over 100 weeks at the top of the world golf rankings and made seven Ryder Cup appearances for Europe. The shackles are off for a true legend of the game so could his major count now continue to rise quickly?
Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and co. will be eyeing a place alongside McIlroy in time, but who will be number seven to achieve the remarkable feat of winning the grand slam of golf and enter the pantheon of greats of the sport? Like Mickelson at the US Open, Jordan Spieth shoots his shot in 2025 at the PGA Championship from Quail Hollow.
