The Break: Rory keeps the green jacket

It looked as though Rory McIlroy gave away the Masters, but just then, the seas parted and he stepped into the green jacket again.

Author

Ryan Ballengee
April 13, 2026

Rory’s rare air

There was absolutely no way that Rory McIlroy was going to coast to a second Masters title in a row. That’s not his style. He finds a way to keep it close, and this might have been his greatest high-wire act yet.

Sometime on Saturday afternoon, I posted: “It would be the cruelest trick for Rory McIlroy to finally win the Masters only to blow the biggest 36-hole lead in tournament history.”

That was amidst Cam Young’s Saturday charge and McIlroy’s pedestrian 1-over 73 to temporarily lose the solo lead before finding himself tied with The Players champion heading into Sunday. McIlroy assuaged himself in the press building afterword, as he had all week, with the reminder that his safety blanket was his green jacket from last year. On Saturday night, it sounded more like he was preparing to lose.

It seemed like everything was slipping away from McIlroy on the fourth hole in the final round, three-putting from inside 5 feet to make double bogey. To leave a birdie putt short on No. 1 and then, after a birdie on the third, to make a mess of the first par 3 on Sunday… it all appeared to be a slow-moving train wreck.

Then, after a confounding bogey on the 6th, he found his rally. He played the 7th hole perfectly, then birdied the 8th to get back to even for the day. He handled the 11th miles better than he did on Saturday, playing smart to make par.

That’s when he made his move. He hit a daring approach shot on the 12th, in what turned out to be the best shot of the day. More importantly, he paid it off with a birdie. Cam Young stalled out, and Justin Rose mangled Amen Corner. The tournament was his if he could just play smart to the house.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple. He went long on 16 and played a brilliant second shot that led to a tap-in par. Then, on the 72nd hole, he blasted a drive so far right that he could have played up the 10th. Fortunately, he had a window to hit a high hook into the front greenside bunker. A sand splash and two putts later, McIlroy had survived and became the fourth player in Masters history to repeat as champion.

McIlroy held off Scottie Scheffler, who nearly came back from a dozen down at the halfway mark on the back of a first-of-its-kind flawless weekend. Now, the duo have four of the last five Masters between them. They also have combined to win four of the last five majors. We have a Jack and Arnie-level rivalry.

The career arc of Rory McIlroy is so fascinating. It’s pockmarked with heartache and a few periods of dominance. He spent 11 years in the major championship desert, and now he’s found a way to win consecutive Masters in the most nail-biting fashion possible.

What he does next — and how he does it — is anyone’s guess. If nothing else, it’ll be entertaining.

I share my thoughts on Justin Rose’s close call at the bottom of the newsletter.

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This week is the RBC Heritage, the Signature event on Hilton Head Island at South Carolina’s renovated Harbour Town Golf Links. This should be a great week, though Rory McIlroy is skipping this tournament once again this year. Scottie Scheffler headlines as Justin Thomas defends. Rankings and picks will be out this afternoon. I’ve had the good fortune to play Harbour Town back in 2011, and it’s spectacular.

The LPGA is out in Los Angeles for the JM Eagle LA Championship, their final event before the first major, The Chevron Championship in Houston. It’s a great field, including Hannah Green, who has been tearing it up this year, as well as Minjee Lee and Lauren Coughlin, who won the last event at Shadow Creek in Vegas.

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I feel for Justin Rose

When Justin Rose took the solo lead at 11 under par after his birdie on the par-5 8th and Cam Young made bogey on No. 7, I started to get truly invested in this finally being the 45-year-old’s time to slip on the green jacket.

After he took a two-shot lead following a birdie on the ninth, I couldn’t help but think this was going to be his time. Alas, it wasn’t.

A poor second shot on the 11th led to a bogey, and a stubbed chip from behind the 12th green led to another dropped shot. He three-putted for par on the 13th, and that pretty much sealed his fate. Perhaps crestfallen about what he knew he let slip away, Rose struggled to get in the house, including a shocking bogey at the 17th.

Rose didn’t finish second for a fourth time in his Masters career, but it might have been his most painful defeat at Augusta National.

“I was really in control. First 10 holes I felt like I was -- yeah, I was,” he said. “And the mentality was to run through the finish line not just try and get it done. I was playing great, but just momentum shifted for me around the Amen Corner.”

Rose could feel the Augusta patrons pulling for him, though he felt like he let them down in the end.

“Felt like the crowd was amazing to me all week long,” he said. “They pulled for me all week long. I felt their encouragement and support. At the end it kind of goes a little flat. [The ovation at No. 18 was] more of a sympathy than anything.”

I turn 43 in a few weeks, so Rose and I are pretty close in age. His loss felt more personal than I expected. I’ve talked to the guy a few times, but it wasn’t a relationship thing, despite him being well-liked. It was more of an empathy thing. I’m starting to get to the age where I am realizing more of my limitations. I know it’ll be harder to achieve some of the things that, earlier in life, I wanted to do.

I was kind of hoping that Rose would be there to win one for the guys fighting the sunset, trying to beat the younger, faster and stronger types just one more time for one more day. He has been so close here. He’s lost in heartbreaking fashion, in playoffs to the two players who needed the most Masters appearances to win their first green jacket (Sergio Garcia, 19, and Rory McIlroy, 17). Sometimes you never get there, to what you want. You have that great regret, losing something you had or forever unable to grasp it.

If Rose wins another major than the Masters, it’ll be an incredibly popular victory, but it might feel to him like a bit of a consolation prize. He wants that green jacket, and he’s almost been good enough so many times to have one. I’ll be pulling for him to finally break the tape in a sprint at Augusta.