Rory McIlroy’s route to the career Grand Slam could not have been more dramatic.

There would be four doubles to go alongside three eagles and 18 bogeys in his first Masters win. Rounds of 72-66-66-73 barely scratch the surface as a final day that was billed as a Rory vs Bryson showdown emerged into a play-off with Justin Rose.

We recount a week that was like no other for the now five-time Major champion.

1. McIlroy has, for the vast majority of his career, been one of the most honest and open characters in the game. You’re very rarely left wondering what his opinion is on any topic and it’s this candidness which has made him so popular. In his pre-tournament press conference, again, he didn’t leave much behind.

“At a certain point in someone’s life, someone doesn’t want to fall in love because they don’t want to get their heart broken. People, I think, instinctually as human beings we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that’s a conscious decision or subconscious decision, and I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years.

“Once you go through those heartbreaks, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you’re like, yeah, life goes on, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The last few years I’ve had chances to win some of the biggest tournaments in the world and it hasn’t quite happened. But life moves on. You dust yourself off and you go again. I think that’s why I’ve become a little more comfortable in laying everything out there and being somewhat vulnerable at times.”

2. McIlroy’s Major record has always featured plenty of top 10s but, in recent years, he has threatened – at St Andrews and Pinehurst most notably – to break the duck. He has had various approaches to breaking through again but, since 2020, he has been more consistent in his approach.

“It was after the 2019 season. I’d won four times around the world. I’d won the FedExCup. I had my best statistical season ever. But I didn’t have a great season in the Major championships. I made a commitment to myself from 2020 onwards that these four weeks a year I was going to just do the same things I do for every other week of the year but knowing that they’re not every other week of the year. I made a commitment to myself to sort of earmark these a little bit more and to give a little bit more of myself in these weeks. That was just sitting down and reflecting at the end of 2019 thinking that I need to approach these a little bit differently again.”

3. You don’t have to play in the Par 3 contest but McIlroy was there playing alongside Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood and his daughter, Poppy. For one final time he was asked the never-ending question of whether this would be the week.

“I’ve preached this the whole year but just managing my game and minimising my mistakes. If I get myself out of position, putting myself back in position. Just playing really smart and being really logical and rational about everything. If I can do that for four days, I feel like I’ll have a good chance.”

4. McIlroy was going along really nicely on the Thursday, four under for the first 14 holes with no dropped shots. Then, with the chance of a fifth birdie on 15, he would chip it too heavily into the water and finish with two doubles for a 72. Interestingly he didn’t seem to know that he could have replayed the shot. He left the course without talking to the media.

“I hit two good shots into 15 and I felt like I hit a pretty good chip shot. I was really surprised at not so much the speed, I knew it was a fast chip, it was just more the first bounce was so firm. That green is so much firmer than any other green, even the other three newer greens. At that point I didn’t know that a couple of people had done that before I did it, as well.

“I was obviously surprised that I had done that and I forgot that I could try to play it again. I went straight to the drop zone, and then afterwards, I was thinking, like, I could have tried to just chip that again.”

5. McIlroy came back the following morning and shot a bogey-free 66, helped by a back nine of 31. Where he doubled the 15th on Thursday, he birdied on Friday. He would go into the weekend two off the lead which was held by Justin Rose.

“Once I left the property last night, I just sort of tried to leave what had happened here. I rushed out of here to get home to see Poppy before she went to bed. So that was sort of nice to get to see her before she went to sleep.

“I feel like I just did a good job of resetting. I had a good conversation with Bob Rotella, mostly around not pushing too hard too early and trying to get those shots back straightaway. And you can sort of see how I started with eight pars and a birdie on the front nine. I just tried to stay really, really patient. I feel like that patience was rewarded with a nice little stretch there in the middle of the round.”

6. There would also be his first eagle of the week, from the pine straw on 13.

“It was like 189 front. I don’t think it was really a decision to go for it or not, but I was between a 4- and a 5-iron. And usually the ball comes out of it spinnier out of the pine straw. So I hit a 4-iron, and the follow-through, definitely I saved it, and I was glad that I hit 4-iron. I covered that little corner there.

“When the ball was in the air, I was like, you idiot, what did you do? It’s a pin that even if you do hit it into the hazard, it’s not a routine up-and-down, but it’s a little easier than, say, where the pin was in that front section. I rode my luck a little bit with that second shot.”

7. McIlroy’s opening of six 3s on Saturday played a big part in his final success. He revealed that his swing speed was rapid on the driving range which helped see him smash a driver 371 yards at the opening hole. He went into Sunday with a two-shot lead.

“There’s a lot of anticipation and sort of anxious energy that builds up. You just want to get out there and play. I was fast on the range, I was probably three or four miles an hour faster than I have been all week. So I knew I didn’t have to worry about the bunker on 1 or 2 if I just made a good swing. It wasn’t really about being aggressive. It was just making good, committed swings and knowing that if I did that, I could set myself up on those first few holes.”

8. The Sunday on the 1st tee was anything but the same as Saturday. McIlroy famously blew one way right when paired with Patrick Reed in 2018 and, again, the understandable nerves were very present.

“I had that knot in your stomach, haven’t really had much of an appetite all day. Tried to force food down. Your legs feel a little jelly-like, and those nerves that are natural, and they are all good things. If you weren’t feeling like that, I think that’s more of a problem than when you do feel them. It’s such a battle in your head of trying to stay in the present moment and hit this next shot good and hit the next shot good. That was the battle. My battle was with myself. It wasn’t with anyone else My battle was with my mind and staying in the present.”

9. Had McIlroy not won the 2025 Masters then, away from the various missed putts coming down the stretch, it was the pitch into Rae’s Creek on 13 that was the most shocking. With half of Augusta to the left of the pin he somehow found the water with the tournament very much in his hands.

“Walking to the 13th tee, I was thinking, I can play the next three holes in 4, 4, 4. I was really just trying to break it down into threes. I felt like I played 10, 11, 12 well. I was trying to play 13, 14, 15 well. Didn’t quite materialise. I just basically broke it down into three-hole stretches.

“I thought I played the 13th hole smartly, at least for the first two shots, 3-wood off the tee, laid it up into a good position. I had 82 yards to the pin. It had gone into a little valley and it was on the upslope.

And usually when I hit wedge shot off upslopes, they come out a little bit left on me. I gave myself a couple of yards of room to the right. I wasn’t aiming at the creek, but it came out a little weak and a little right.”

10. In among the doubles and the recoveries McIlroy made six birdies in regulation play, plus the one in overtime. His best shot might surprise you though.

“It could be the second on 7, but I think one of the most important ones was the second shot on 3. I started 6, 5. Hit a good tee shot on 3. That’s not an easy second shot, bumping it up that hill. To judge that well and make a 3 there, when Bryson then made 5, and then to go ahead and birdie the next hole, as well, I thought that was a huge moment.”