It felt like nothing would top Tiger Woods’s Masters win, but then the Northern Irishman completed his career grand slam on an extraordinary final day at Augusta
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t 7am on 14 April in an Augusta rental home, Rory McIlroy awoke and immediately spotted a Green Jacket draped over a chair. “You think: ‘Yeah, that did happen yesterday,’” he says. “That.” McIlroy was now the sixth man to win all four of golf’s majors.
The detail of what lay around in the bedroom of my own Augusta billet is of no interest to anybody. That was, however, a memorable morning. I had previously and wrongly believed nothing would top Tiger Woods’s 2019 Masters win in respect of seismic reaction. Scores of messages from friends, colleagues, family members – umpteen of whom have no interest whatsoever in golf – had landed. Broadcast outlets across the world wanted my assessment of what had played out on Masters Sunday. Yeah, that did happen yesterday.
The first major I covered was McIlroy’s debut in the same format, at the 2007 Open Championship. My first trip to Augusta was four years later; I lost my luggage and stayed in a hotel that has long since and rightly been condemned. McIlroy tossed away what had looked an unassailable lead and the rest is storied, occasional brutal, history.
