AUGUSTA _ It’s done.
It wasn’t easy. No one said it would be easy.
But it’s done.
Finally.
At long last, Rory McIlroy has become the sixth player in golf history _ and the first in 25 years _ to complete the career Grand Slam.
He now has a green jacket to go with his Claret Jug for the British Open, Wanamaker trophy for the PGA Championship and U.S. Open trophy.
And that green jacket came a lot harder than any other victory in McIlroy’s life.
It took surviving an absolute rollercoaster of a round and a one-hole playoff with Justin Rose.
McIlroy stuffed his approach shot on 18 in the playoff to two feet from the flag after Rose hit his to 10 feet.
With McIlroy’s a tap-in, Rose needed to make his to stay alive.
Rose missed on the right side and McIlroy, who earlier had missed a four-foot par putt on 18 in regulation that would have won it, made his for the most important victory of his life.
When it was over, McIlroy raised his arms to the sly, dropped his putter behind him and crumpled to the ground, trembling as he cried into his hands.
For Rose, it was a devastating heartbreak, because he’d lost to Sergio Garcia in 2017 in the last playoff played at the Masters before Sunday.
The 35-year-old Northern Irishman’s harrowing, stress-saturated, gritty victory at the 89th Masters on Sunday at sun-splashed Augusta National with its fabled fairways lined 30 bodies deep, put him in the most elite company in golf.
He entered the day with a two-shot lead, was in total control early on the back nine and then inexplicably appeared to be throwing it all away.
He would lose the lead with a pitch shot into Rae’s Creek on the 13thhole and a riveting Rose rally. McIlroy trailed by one shot after the double on 13 Rose birdies on Nos. 15 and 16.
Then he would hit a couple of the shots of his life.
First, on the par-5 15thhole, a hole he double bogeyed in the first round, he curved a 6-iron around the trees and over the water onto the green and birdied it to tie Rose at 11-under par.
Rose would birdie the 18thhole to finish on 11-under and he was tied with McIlroy.
Then, with Rose on the practice range warming up for a possible playoff, McIlroy would then positively rip an 8-iron to within three feet on No. 17, made birdie and took a one-shot lead.
That left McIlroy one par on 18 away from history.
He hit his drive onto the fairway, walking confidently after it upon impact.
It left him with a wedge on his hands _ a wedge he would nervously push into the right greenside bunker, leaving the swelled gallery around 18 gasping.
Determined to test everyone’s heart _ not the least of which his _ he splashed the bunker shot out to four feet.
Four feet for the victory, for a first career Masters, for a first major championship victory and, last but not least, the career Grand Slam completed.
And he missed it, the ball sliding past the hole on the left side, never touching the hole.
More stress as the playoff would begin.
