(Reuters) -Rory McIlroy’s triumph at the Masters on Sunday was hailed on both sides of the Atlantic as the 35-year-old Northern Irishman became the first European men’s player to complete a career grand slam of golf’s majors.
McIlroy completed an extraordinary final day with a birdie on the opening hole of a sudden-death playoff against Justin Rose to complete the set, following earlier victories at the U.S. Open (2011), PGA Championship (2012, 2014) and Open Championship (2014).
“I think we saw one of the greatest days in golf we will ever see,” Sky Sports pundit and renowned coach Butch Harmon said.
“It had an ebb and flow that a Hollywood producer could not have come up with. If you wrote a script like this, they would say it wasn’t believable. He was like a gladiator in the way he came back. Did he quit? No. Did he hang his head? No. Did he feel sorry for himself? No. Now he has a Green Jacket.
“I’ve known Rory since he was 16, done a little work with him at times, and this is one of the most amazing victories I have ever seen.”
McIlroy is the sixth man in history to complete the career grand slam, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
The Belfast Telegraph captured the national mood back home with the rapturous headline, “Putting man on the moon? What Rory McIlroy has just achieved is statistically even more impressive.”
The daily hailed their local hero not just as the greatest sports person the country had ever produced, but also as one of the greatest in the world.
“He has the Green Jacket and grand slam to prove it. Rory Daniel McIlroy, you are something else,” it said.
The front page of Britain’s Daily Mail celebrated the win with the headline “Master of his Universe”.
Alongside the news of his triumph, the BBC ran a story on “How coping with ‘heartbreak’ changed everything for McIlroy”, highlighting the mental strength he needed to conquer Augusta 11 years after his last major win and 14 since letting a four-shot lead slip on a haunting final day in 2011.
The story noted how working with psychologist Bob Rotella, who helped Ireland’s Padraig Harrington win three majors, influenced McIlroy.
“The boy from Holywood finally gets his Hollywood ending,” read The Telegraph’s headline.
“Resilience feels inadequate,” it declared, saying how McIlroy did not just win the Masters but won it three times over, referring to his three iron shots at the 15th, 17th, and 18th after two extra astonishing short-game blunders had threatened to end his dream.
He “conjured golf from the gods”, it added.
‘A LEGEND’
England’s three-times Masters champion Nick Faldo said McIlroy’s victory had topped Woods’ in 2019, when he won his fifth green jacket and 15th major by one stroke after fighting back from injury.
“When Tiger won here in 2019 (his first major in 11 years), I said that scene would never be topped but I was wrong,” Faldo said.
“For a man to do that after what he went through for 11 years – Rory is a legend now. He is 35 years old and a legend. How about that? It is a remarkable achievement.”
Six-times Masters champion Nicklaus phoned the CBS post-Masters telecast after McIlroy beat Rose, who had birdied the last to force the playoff.
“I’m so happy for him. I’m delighted for him,” Nicklaus said. “It’ll take the world off his shoulders and you’re now going to see a lot more of really good golf out of Rory McIlroy.”
“Ain’t Life Grand,” splashed the headline in the Washington Post, while USA Today ran the news of McIlroy’s triumph on its home page, just below its lead story on U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval falling according to a CBS poll.
Trump, himself an avid golfer, congratulated McIlroy while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.
“That took tremendous courage. He was having a hard time, but it showed great guts and stamina and courage,” the President said.
“People have no idea how tough that is. He came back. It’s better for him that it happened that way because that showed real courage to have come back from what could’ve been a tragedy – it was amazing.”
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in BengaluruEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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