Rory McIlroy hailed a “dream come true” after beating Justin Rose in a play-off to win the 89th Masters and finally complete the career grand slam.
McIlroy threatened to squander a five-shot lead with eight holes to play before holding his nerve to birdie the first extra hole after an extraordinary final day at Augusta National.
“It’s a dream come true,” McIlroy said. “I have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember.
“Watching Tiger (Woods) here in 1997 do what he did, winning his first green jacket, I think that inspired so many of my generation to want to emulate what he did.
“It feels incredible. This is my 17th time here and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time.
“The last 10 years coming here with the burden of the grand slam on my shoulder and trying to achieve it, I wonder what we’re going to talk about going into next year.
“I’m absolutely honoured, thrilled and proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”
McIlroy admitted it was “all relief” that made him sink to his knees after holing the winning putt, adding: “It was 14 years in the making, from having a four-shot lead (after three rounds) in 2011.
“There was a lot of pent up emotion that came out on the 18th green and a moment like that makes all the years and close calls worth it.”
McIlroy’s fourth birdie of the day on the 10th had given him a five-shot lead, but he inexplicably pitched into Rae’s Creek on the 13th to run up a second double bogey of the day and also dropped a shot on the 14th.
After a birdie on the 17th had seen him regain the lead, McIlroy bogeyed the 18th and was grateful for the intervention of his caddie Harry Diamond before the play-off.
“After scoring, Harry and I were walking to the golf cart to bring us back to the 18th tee, and he said to me, “Well pal, we would have taken this on Monday morning,” McIlroy said.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, absolutely we would have’. That was an easy reset. I just kept telling myself, just make the same swing you made in regulation. And I hit a great drive up there and the rest is history.
“I had two yards less in the play-off than regulation and a flatter lie as well. It was a good number, just needed a committed swing and made one at the right time.”
A disappointed Rose has now lost the last two play-offs in the Masters after being beaten by Sergio Garcia in 2017.
“I really didn’t look at a leaderboard all day until the 18th green and realised I needed to make that putt to kind of give myself some hope,” Rose said.
“It’s the kind of putt you dream about as a kid, and to have it and hole it, it was a special feeling. Unfortunately, the play-off, they always end so quickly. That’s sudden death.
“If you’re not the guy to hit the great shot or hole the great putt, it’s over. But not really anything I could have done more today.”
Asked what he said to McIlroy as they embraced on the green, Rose added: “I just said, listen, this is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it, someone who achieves the career grand slam.
“I just said it was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”
