'Forget Tiger Woods in 2019, Rory McIlroy in 2025 was the greatest Masters of all time...'

Please don't @ me, but the 2025 Masters Tournament won by Rory McIlroy to complete the career grand slam is without question the greatest tournament ever witnessed at famed Augusta National.

I know we've all got our favourite Masters Tournaments down the years, but the best in my eyes is now without question the 89th edition we've just witnessed.

It had everything you could possibly wish for when sitting down to watch a golf tournament.

Didn't it? 

Highs, lows, unreal shots, shocking shots, and a fairytale ending we'll all carry to the grave. 

The only people that likely didn't enjoy the end result were people called Justin Rose, LIV Golf bots or members of RoryHaters©. 

I don't know about you but I felt emotionally drained after having watched the 2025 Masters.

Not only because I had been working on the tournament for seven days straight, but all because of what unfolded in the final round. 

And I'm not sure I can say that about any other Masters, a tournament I have been watching since I sat down with my late grandad to watch his favourite player Nick Faldo take down Greg Norman in 1996. 

In fact the only other golf tournament I think even rivals the 2025 Masters for a spectacle is the 2012 Ryder Cup, aka Miracle at Medinah. 

Can you tell I'm British yet? 

Yes, Tiger Woods' Masters win in 2019 was of course an incredible moment and one we'll always remember, but I wouldn't say it was a classic at all. 

Tiger was handed that on a plate. 

Speaking on which, has anyone heard from Francesco Molinari since he found water on 12? 

And while I was a year too young for Jack Nicklaus' record-breaking Masters win in 1986, I have watched the highlights of that final round multiple times and in terms of overall highs and lows, it doesn't come close to 2025. 

Let's be honest, Rory McIlroy should have completed the career grand slam yonks ago, but he still hadn't done it. 

It was coming up to 11 full years since his last major win, too. 

And many of us had written him off after he let slip four shots late in the first round to finish level. That left him seven shots off the pace. 

But Rory fought back incredibly well with a pair of 66s to surge into a two-shot lead heading into Sunday. 

History beckoned, and the final round could come soon enough. 

I can't ever remember a final round at The Masters carrying more weight, expectation and anticipation. And it duly delivered. 

Right from the opening tee shot through to the final putt, Masters Sunday was dramatic.

Can we honestly say that about any other Masters, or golf tournament for that matter? 

It was a rollercoaster from start to finish. 

McIlroy was unlucky with his opening two drives that both found the top of the fairway bunkers, but his lead had completely evaporated by the time he reached the 3rd tee. 

The PGA Tour superstar was suddenly trailing by one to LIV Golf's Bryson DeChambeau, the same man that pipped him to the post at the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

RoryHaters© and LIV Golf bots were going wild on social media, with many of them telling us it's happened again. 

Only they weren't smiling for long as Rory bounced back and soon surged four shots clear following two birdies around the turn, all while Bryson was enduring his own little meltdown. 

Unlike in the final round of the 2024 U.S. Open, Rory was playing alongside Bryson and he could eyeball him.

Bryson admitted after the round that Rory didn't say a word to him. 

Four shots was the same margin of lead McIlroy took into the final round of the 2011 Masters when he memorably went on to shoot 80 to finish T15. 

But Rory was just a boy back then, so you'd think it would be a different story this time? 

Well, not quite... talk about mental demons! 

Rory made a sloppy bogey on 11 and then followed it with one of the most bizarre wedge shots he's ever hit in his life on 13.

With the entire green sloping left to right, from 80 yards McIlroy sent his ball 10 yards right of the pin and into Rae's Creek. 

That led to a double and another shocking bogey followed on 14.

McIlroy had squandered a four-shot lead in the space of half hour, and a fast-finishing Rose, several groups ahead of him, then moved one shot ahead when converting a six-footer for birdie on 16. 

The wheels were not just coming off, they were fully off, and Rory needed to act fast to prevent the worst major defeat of his career. 

RoryHaters© turned the TV back on.

But just when Rory looked dead and buried, he once again got back off the canvas.

All thanks to one of the most amazing shots I've ever seen. 

I don't know about you, but Rory's second shot around the pines on 15 to six feet is the greatest shot ever hit in Masters history.

It's certainly up there with Bubba's hooked wedge in the playoff en route to defeating Louis Oosthuizen in 2012, and even Tiger's insane chip-in from the back of 16 when going on to beat Chris DiMarco in 2005. 

Given where Rory's head was at the time and where he suddenly found himself in the tournament, I consider it to be the best shot I've ever seen at The Masters. 

Okay, he missed the eagle putt, but a birdie there settled him down and it fuelled him to the finish line.

A par followed at 16 but he would then stiff his approach shot from 196 yards to two feet at 17 to take the lead. 

That was another unbelievable shot. 

McIlroy split the fairway down 18 to set up a wedge into a green, and he just needed a par for the win. 

Surely game over? 

Not quite... 

You could probably get Rory to hit 1,000 shots from the same spot with a wedge from the middle of the fairway on 18 and he wouldn't miss the green.

He could probably do it blindfolded, too. 

But with a first Masters, career grand slam and history all on the line, Rory unthinkably pushed his approach into the sand.

He splashed out to five feet and missed the par putt on the low side. 

Rory had seemingly blown it again, and to many, Rose was now the favourite heading into the playoff especially in light of what had just unfolded down 18. 

But for about the fourth time during the final day, McIlroy dusted himself down and got up back up off the canvas to create history.

Rose sent his approach shot into 15 feet to pile the pressure on McIlroy, but this time he was up to it and stuffed his wedge shot inside of four feet. 

Rose missed, McIlroy holed. 

History was made.

McIlroy fell to his knees and cried his eyes out on the hallowed Georgia turf as he became just the sixth player in history to complete the career grand slam. 

He was then mobbed by his caddie and best mate Harry Diamond for perhaps the biggest hug ever seen between player and caddie. 

Rory was then greeted by his wife Erica and daughter Poppy off the back of the 18th. 

"This was 14 years in the making," said an emotional McIlroy, once slipping on the coveted Green Jacket in the Butler Cabin. 

"All of my dreams just came true," he added. 

I don't know about you, but I had a tear in my eye as a disbelieving McIlroy walked through the tunnel of patrons off the back of 18. 

It was pure box office. It was theatre. It was possibly the greatest 89 seconds of television, as one golf fan put it on X / Twitter. 

Other than the time when a young Charlie ran into the arms of Tiger six years previous, I can't ever remember being so personally choked up about a win. 

All while trying to write about it. 

I think there were tears on my keyboard...

I also cannot remember seeing so many high-quality shots from a Masters champion, all in one tournament. 

There were at least four standout shots McIlroy played during the week, many of which will go down as the finest of his career when all is said and done.

My personal favourites were his second shot from the pine straw on 13 in the second round, which led to an eagle, the ridiculous wedge he played over a tree on 7 in the final round, and of course the second shot he drew around the trees on 15. 

The latter will very likely go down as the best iron shot McIlroy has struck in his life. 

The second shot from 196 yards to two feet on 17 was also incredibly clutch, too. 

On the flip side, McIlroy will wish he had at least four shots back during the week. 

The chip shot at the back of 15 and his approach to 17 in the first round were poor, but nothing on his pitch shot to 13 and approach into 18 in the final round. 

They will likely go down as the two worst wedge shots of his life, under major pressure. 

Then again, without those two shocking efforts on 13 and 18, we would not have been treated to such Sunday drama at The Masters. 

I'm not sure we will ever witness another Masters Tournament quite like the one we saw in April 2025. 

Forget Jack in '86 and even Tiger in '19, the greatest Masters final round of all time will forever in my mind be Rory in '25. 

It looks like you guys agree with me too, at least judging by our latest poll on X below. 

You have to believe only a wounded Tiger limping home for a record-tying sixth Masters and 16th career major title can possibly rival McIlroy's valiant victory at the 2025 Masters. 

I'm not sure how we'll all react if that happens...