Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland celebrates winning the 2026 Masters Tournament. Photo / AFP
Rory McIlroy overcame another shaky finish on the last hole to become just the fourth player to defend their Masters title at Augusta.
McIlroy finished at 12-under, one shot better than last year, despite a bogey at the 18th for the second straight year.
A year after giving up the lead on the last hole before winning a playoff, McIlroy stood on the 18th tee with a two-shot lead over world No 1 Scottie Scheffler but sent his drive way right into the trees. However, he managed to escape with a bogey and claim a sixth major victory. He also had a Kiwi good luck charm in his bag a second time.
Justin Rose, who lost the playoff to McIlroy last year, held a two-shot lead at the start of the second nine but couldn’t hold on and claim the elusive green jacket, finishing third for a fifth top five at the Masters.
Scheffler shot a four-under 68 today and became the first player to go bogey free in the final two rounds, dating back to 1942, making up 11 shots before falling just short of a third green jacket. For Scheffler it was his sixth straight top 10 finish at a major, and his fifth straight at the Masters but he was hampered at times by player partner Haotong Li who struggled including a 10 at the par five 13th.
McIlroy joins Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as the fourth player to win back-to-back Masters titles. He has now won the Masters and the PGA Championship twice and is another US Open and Open Championship away from doing the grand slam twice.
The Northern Irishman started the day at 11-under in the final group with Cameron Young after his six-shot lead at the end of day two was wiped out following a third-round 73.
McIlroy birdied the par four third before a double bogey at the par three fourth saw him give up the lead to Young. Another bogey at the sixth saw McIlroy drop back to nine-under, but Young also found trouble at the par three. For McIlroy he’d coughed up a six shot lead at the start of the third round to be two back on Sunday.
But he recovered well with a much improved driver leading to consecutive birdies at seven and eight to be even on the first nine and at the turn was a shot behind Rose. For a moment it looked like it was finally going to be the Englishman’s Masters after three runner-up finishes. He held a two-shot lead after birdies at seven, eight and nine but found trouble at Amen Corner with dropped shots at both 11 and 12.
“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 said.
As he went backwards McIlroy made his charge, going clear in front with consecutive birdies at 12 and 13. McIlroy first went closest to the pin for the day at the famed par three 12th before converting his birdie putt. He then recovered from an approach with his second at the back of the par five 13th green to get an up-and-down birdie.
At one point his lead was three shots as a late charge never came from the field. McIlroy safely navigated the 18th hole from the trees on the right and then the front left bunker. He was left with two putts from around 3m to win the title and almost holed the par before tapping in for the victory.
Rose shared third place with Tyrrell Hatton, Young and Russell Henley who all had birdies chances on the second nine. There was no chasing pack late on the day with Young failing to record a birdie on the second nine and Rose dropping three shots. Sam Burns, in the penultimate group, held a share of the lead after a birdie at one but then went double bogey-bogey and finished one-over for the day in seventh.
The tradition at Augusta is for the defending champion to place the green jacket on the winner but this time it was left to Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley to do the honour.
“I can’t believe I waited 17 years to get one green jacket and I get two in a row. My perseverance at this golf tournament over the years has started to pay off. It was a tough weekend, I did the bulk of my work on Thursday and Friday but just so happy to hang in there and get the job done,” McIlroy said.
“It’s the second major my mum has been at, second major win. She was at The Open at Hoylake in 2014.
“There was a piece of them that didn’t want to come this year because they thought, okay, we didn’t come last year, maybe that was the reason. But I’m so glad that they got to experience this today. I’m going to - we’re all going to have a great time tonight.”
The low rounds of the day went to Hatton (-10), Keegan Bradley (-3) and Gary Woodland (even) who all shot 66, while Collin Morikawa was brilliant on the second nine recording five straight birdies while struggling with a back injury to card a 68.
China’s Li and Shane Lowry both had days to forget, carding eight-over 80s after starting in contention.
Masters leaderboard
-12 Rory McIlroy (NIR).
-11 Scottie Scheffler (USA)
-10 Tyrrell Hatton (ENG), Cameron Young (USA), Russell Henley (USA), Justin Rose (ENG).
-9 Collin Morikawa (USA), Sam Burns (USA).
-8 Max Homa (USA), Xander Schauffele (USA).
-7 Jake Knapp (USA).
-5 Hideki Matsuyama (JPN), Jordan Spieth (USA), Brooks Koepka (USA), Patrick Cantlay (USA), Patrick Reed (USA), Jason Day (AUS).