2025 Masters: How Rory McIlroy finally captured the career Grand Slam
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Indeed.com slash NBC Sports. Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. We took one of the wildest rounds in major championship history. But Roy McIlroy is not just the 2025 Masters champion. He is also the sixth man to complete the career Grand Slam. Rex, you and I were both out at Augusta National all Sunday. What was it like for you on the grounds at Augusta National?

I mean, if you're going to make history, and Rory made history today, there's no doubt about that. You might as well have as many plot twists as you can possibly have. And that's what we ended up with. I mean, if you start from the first hole going forward, and Rory did a fantastic job of kind of walking us through his day about having jello in his legs and a knot in his stomach to start off his day, couldn't eat, all of the things that you would expect of someone who's trying to do something that only five other people in the modern history of the game have done. You and I just had a really fun conversation, long conversation, Rory.

with his putting coach, Brad Faxon about this. And Brad actually brought it up to me as we were kind of watching the award ceremony. And he's like, if you're going to do this, that's the way to do it. He could have ran away with this. He could have won by five. He could have just blown the field away and made the second nine sort of just a victory march to history. But he didn't do that. We ended up with all these plot twists that we're going to get into. And, and,

I know Rory didn't enjoy it. No one can possibly enjoy that if you're going through it. But if you were at home or like you and I, if you were watching it here on property, that's about as good as it gets. Major championship golf. I'm not talking about the Masters. I'm not talking about

uh, just golf in general, but this is as good as it possibly gets because you had every single element of something special involved. You had someone going for history, Rory going to complete the career grand slam. You had Justin Rose being the outlier and doing something on Sunday that we haven't seen in a long time. Someone sort of come from behind and make a run and really scare the lead. You had the dichotomy between Bryson D Shambo and Rory, uh,

McElroy after last year's U S open and everything that goes into that. If you're, if you're like you and I, and you sort of savor storylines, I'm not sure you can end up with a better Sunday than this. I mean, this was the first great masters since 2019. Yeah.

It was like golf fans had to sacrifice to the golf gods. Like, okay, if we can get a Tiger Woods 15th major, all of a sudden we have to have the year's biggest tournament be a total snooze fest. And all credit to Scotty Shepard and John Rahm and everyone else who has won, Dustin Johnson, who has won over the past five years. But the Masters has sort of been a bore. This was anything but. And I thought Tommy Fleet, when we were interviewing him outside the scoring building on Sunday, summed it up perfectly perfectly.

that that second nine at Augusta National that Roy McIlroy played in which he made just two pars

epitomized his entire career the ups and downs the spectacular the inexplicable mistakes the heroic shots to sort of overcome them and then in the end as he has done typically throughout his career a victory in the end it was incredible uh a great moment on 18 the reaction i was trying to think like that's got to go down in the pantheon of of great reactions in master's history right like

Ben Crenshaw after the death of Harvey Pettig certainly comes to mind. Tiger 2019 scooping up Charlie into his arms. I mean, where would you where would you just put Phil in 04?

I mean, that's as good of a reaction as you could possibly hope for from a Masters champion. Tiger winning the Open Championship after his father had passed away. Certainly there was a lot of emotion there. And I know you're going to camp on this. I didn't even have to ask you what you were writing for NBCSports.com tonight because I knew immediately that you were going with the burden. And that emotion that we saw after the first playoff hole, that's a decade or more.

of just anxiety and expectations and pressures and second guessing and all of the other things I can sit here and put up just came gushing out of him. And I think both of us kind of anticipated that. We made a comment, I think, on Saturday night when we were doing the preview podcast for the final round that he had been almost machine-like.

All week long. And that was very much by design. He was trying to shelter out the outside world. He was watching Zootopia with Poppy. He was trying to just stay away from his phone. He was reading a book like anything he can do not to think about the obvious, which was, man, this is it. And I think you made a comment earlier in the day and you have a tendency of making comments sometimes that I think are absolutely ridiculous. However, I will give this one some credence because you said this was the most important round.

of Roy McIlroy's life and it really was and it's not as though he didn't have any more opportunities to do this he was going to be back here next year at Augusta National even if he didn't get it done now and he'd show up and he would have a stiff upper lip as they say in the UK and he would try to get it done again I'm not sure if he could pick himself up after this one I remember writing in my notes while he was giving his press conferences how many times can you pick yourself back up

And he mentioned the idea. And I think it's the question you asked him about what was the low point of the last decade. And man, I can only imagine trying to sum that up in my own life, but like put it in context of Rory's. And I think he went right to Pinehurst. He didn't want to go there. He had like, he kind of danced around it for a minute. And finally, St. Andrews was also tough. Yeah. St. Andrews was tough, but you know, he, he finally got the Pinehurst and yeah, man, that one hurt.

That one killed me. If it happened again here under those circumstances, I'm not quite sure if he could have. And again, you always seem to go one step further than I'm willing to go. I will say, and it's been a running joke all week, and this will be the last time I absolutely say it. On Wednesday, I picked Rory McIlroy.

And that's the most humble of brags because, as I've said numerous times, I had no bass in my voice. As someone walked by me as Rory was making the turn on Sunday with a four-stroke lead, he was up by four. And they're like, ah, you did it. I still didn't have any bass in my voice because I still knew that, man, this could all unravel so quickly.

Fans of the pod out there, Sunday at August National, those are things that you certainly do love to see. I tried to make the point on Sunday, Rex, that this was like a binary outcome as related to Roy McRoy. It was either going to be the best day of his life or it was going to be the worst day of his life if he was unable to get it done. I would say the worst day of his life because it would be the most painful defeat ever.

in a career that has sort of been piling up heartbreaks over the past half decade. And I think Rory understood, at least at times on Sunday, that he was living quite dangerously. That was I going to let this slip away? The double on one, which he sort of attributed to being incredibly nervous. The double again on 13 after, again, an inexplicable mistake.

hitting into the creek with his third shot, but it's the resilience that he has showed. And why I felt like this was such a consequential day for Roy McIlroy is when you look at the burden. And again, you're exactly right. That is exactly what I was writing for NBC sports.com slash golf. But Rory had a chance to prove that he was historically resilient and

When you look at the other players who have captured the career grand slam, all of them needed no more than three attempts. This was Roy McIlroy in his 11th attempt to capture this. I mean, the ability to come each and every year to Augusta National, to think about it for eight or nine months, to make the preparatory trips in advance, to scout the golf course, to undergo, you know, multiple scrimmages,

sort of hypnosis almost to sort of put himself in the proper mind frame. Was he going to think about it? Was he going to treat it like any other tournament? Was he going to treat it like a special tournament? Was he going to take one trip? Was he going to take two trips? Was he going to have a putting coach this time? Was he going to have a mental coach this time? Like every, he was trying everything possible to try and win the masters and to do it over and over again and to fail over and over again, like had to be unbelievably taxing on him.

And no one who has gotten this close and failed to do it. The other players who have held a 54-hole lead while trying to capture the final leg of the career Grand Slam have all gone on to win. And the prospect of him not doing it, I think, would have been too much to bear.

And I never want to do this on a Sunday night podcast simply because I don't know how much people enjoy it. But I do kind of want to go through the card, as they say here at Augusta, where I want to start at one because it was sloppy. He clearly had a lot of nerves. There were a lot of things going on all the way through the first playoff hole, 19 holes in the day. However, I want to get real quick to the point that you just made, because I'm going to write on NBC Sports dot com.

What exactly does the career grand slam mean? Because I think there's going to be a lot of people in the modern audience because it hasn't happened in two and a half decades. Tiger Woods was the last person to do it in 2000. So certainly my son being the litmus test here, Trevor was the first one to text me because he didn't quite get like, why is this important? Why is this important? He won all the grand slam events. What do you mean, why is this important?

You spend some time around my son, but I'm just trying to put it in context around everyone. You shouldn't be surprised. Yeah, he's not exactly the sharpest knife, as they say. But when you looked at like he became the sixth person to do that. And when you consider the people that haven't done that is the one that gets me. Arnold Palmer didn't do that. Tom Watson didn't do that. Ben Grinshaw didn't do that. I can keep going. Phil Mickelson.

Didn't do that. And you, I, when I brought it up earlier, now I'm stammering because I can't believe that this is so important, but when you consider the fact that we probably won't see it again for another two and a half decades, and you were real quick to sit, to point out that, well, Xander and I, I was even quicker to point out, well, Jordan speed next month could technically do it. I don't think so. Certainly not the way he's playing. Certainly not the way that golf course is going to set up for him, but I,

It's so difficult in the modern era to imagine anyone getting to this benchmark, this threshold, because you always hit a wall. I think Arnold Palmer is probably the best comp here because I probably everyone in his prime and that day in time and that moment in time would have said, well, Arnold's going to get there. Like, of course he is. Like he's Arnold Palmer. Like he just needs the PGA championship.

and the fact he never did, we were saying the same thing a decade ago about Rory McIlroy. And here we are in his 11th try later, and he finally gets through and we see all the emotion and we see what it means to him. You cannot overstate that this means he is on the Mount Rushmore of golf now. Not only is he the greatest player of his generation, full stop,

but he is among the greats now. Oh, I mean, instant, instant legendary status just by completing the career at Grand Slam. To answer your question, I do think at least among Rory's peers,

John Rahm, I would have said sort of, you know, pre-live is absolutely going to do that. Brooks, no, I think time is probably running out in terms of Brooks Koepke. He hasn't been competitive in a major championship in a year and a half. We'll get to John Rahm in a little bit. I think Xander Shoffley, though, does make a lot of sense with the Masters and the U.S. Open, the major championship historically that he has performed the best. I think those are probably your two best bets of Rory's peers who can still accomplish that. But like when you zoom out,

on the importance of the career Grand Slam and what it means. Like, it is a monumental achievement to claim all four major championships and all of sort of the different attributes or characteristics of those tournaments that these players are able to master. And I know Rory did it another lifetime ago.

I mean, he was in his early 20s at that point. He wasn't married. He didn't have kids. He didn't have the burden of expectation. He didn't have, you know, the years of scar tissue that have accumulated. But to win a PGA championship, you know, it's most likely going to be a shootout on a golf course against the strongest field in major championship golf.

Got it. U.S. Open is going to be a knockdown, drag out fight, excruciatingly difficult conditions, a test as much between the ears as it is sort of any sort of physical attribute. The Open Championship can be a little bit fluky. It can be a little bit luck of the draw. Wind, bounces, whatever the case may be, to be able to master a completely different sort of skill set, I think is incredible too. For Roy to get the Masters last, though,

Knowing like the time gap between especially since the PGA Championship moved from August to May, like knowing the amount of time that you have to sit on it, a golf course that, yes, you can gain, you know, countless years of experience, but also a lot of scar tissue along the way might be the easiest major championship to win because I think the fewest players have a realistic shot.

But knowing the history, knowing the legacy, knowing the buildup, knowing the anticipation and the hype, I think it's the hardest major to win last in Roy. And I think that's why it took him so long. And I cannot imagine the amount of relief that he now is experiencing on Sunday night.

And I don't like to do history because I simply think that most people think golf was invented in 1997 and just want to look forward. But in this particular case, you have to do a little bit of history. The only other player to secure the career grand slam at Augusta, the masters was Gene Saracen. It's important to point out that he did that in his first start at the masters. He hadn't played this event before. It's important to point out that it wasn't called the masters. Then it was called the Augusta national invitational. It's also important. It,

important to point out that it was only the second time they played the Augusta National Invitational so when Gene did it it the career Grand Slam really didn't exist the Augusta National Invitational was just a really cool event that everyone wanted to go play so the context is that yes Sarazin's in that that great club and you're never going to take him out of it but he didn't have to face anything even remotely close to what Rory did what was that experience like for you Rex

I wasn't here when Gene Sanderson won. I couldn't tell you. It was 1935. I didn't mean that. I met on Sunday at Augusta National with Roy McRoy. I mean, this is... I don't think it's quite as spectacular or as game-changing of a performance as Tiger in 2019 was. But I think it's at least in a similar stratosphere. And I think it's important to...

reflect on these sorts of moments in golf because they're special when they come about. And so from your perspective, walking, of course, not inside the ropes, but outside the ropes, what was Sunday like for you experiencing that as a journalist, as a player is trying to accomplish something so momentous?

A little bit different than you. And I'm going to just own this. I lied to Steve Sands. We were on live from with him Sunday morning and he asked us what we were going to do. Very similar question that what you just asked you and I had a very similar reaction. I think I said, I'm tearing my tie off. I'm going to the golf course. I want to walk. You said something very, very similar. You did that. I did not. I got waylaid by some conversations that I ended up having and went back to the media center. And about the time I did that tragic, that is tragic here.

Yeah.

If we're being honest, right? Like if you're being honest, you really didn't see much of what Justin Rose did. You certainly didn't see much of what Louie Gobert did. You had no idea that Patrick Reed actually hold out on the 17th hole to get within two strokes going to the 18th hole. Like there was so much that those things happened with like a 30 second window.

Justin Rose made a 20-footer on 18 to essentially tie for the lead. Patrick Reed holed out from the fairway on 17. And I'm trying to think here. I think Rory McIlroy ended up making par on 15. I mean, there were so many things that were just rat-a-tat-tat at you. And normally, I do like to walk. But in this situation, it was just impossible. You couldn't do it. But I think that's sort of the beauty –

of the masters. And that's why I love covering it so much. It certainly has its frustrations. And, you know, I wish I had my phone and I wish I could communicate, communicate with colleagues. I wish I could see up ahead. I wish I could go inside the ropes and have a better vantage point, but there's almost something it's, it's like experiential, you know, being with being among the patrons and me like sidling up to the tallest one that I could find so they can give a good bench, but like, Oh, how close did he hit it on 15? Because no one really knows, right?

And, you know, no one's no one's ahead of the curve, like no one's listening to a radio. You're all just sort of fixated on the leaderboards and waiting for another number to pop up. And it elicits an actual reaction from the gallery. If you've never been to the Masters, this is probably hard to imagine. But you have no idea what's going on ahead of you until a Justin Rose 11 pops on the board. And all of a sudden there's murmurs and there's gasps and there's cheers like there's nothing like it.

in all of sports. And so I love being among that because you can get so much color. Sure. It's a little bit frustrating because I didn't see a single shot that Justin Rose hit on Sunday.

Certainly. But like if my story was and is going to be Roy McIlroy's Sunday at the Masters, you have such a collective experience among golf fans being able to experiencing it that way where no one's ahead of it. Everyone is experiencing in real time. I think there's something special to that as well.

And, again, to pull back the curtain a little bit, when they went out in the playoff, because you and I both were in the interview area, which is just behind the clubhouse, we were both standing there when Rory walked in. I think we both wanted to get a little bit of that flavor. And it was a scene. The crowd was behind him. They were trying to lift him up on his shoulders. I've never seen that many people encircling the 18th green before at Augusta National. That was enormous.

I've never seen that many people encircling the, I don't know what you would actually call this. There is a pit where the reporters are and it's just roped off. You couldn't really get access to it because you had to weave through a gallery that was about seven or eight people deep. I've never seen that before, not even in 2019 when Tiger Woods won and it was a madhouse back then. And then we went inside essentially right next to this little room, which is right next to the locker room to watch the

the playoff hole. And to your point, you hear it all before you actually see it on TV. We knew that Justin Rose had missed his putt for birdie on the first playoff hole. And then we knew long before they actually showed it on TV that Rory McIlroy had made his putt, which allowed us kind of, at least it allowed me to sort of fixate in on exactly how he celebrated. Because I'm always curious of what the emotion was going to be like. And as we know now, it all just came pouring out. Why do you think this was Rory McIlroy's

Why do you think in his 11th attempt, why do you think in 2025, why do you think now just a month away from turning 35 years old,

This was Roy McIlroy's time to complete the career grand slam. For all the reasons we probably talked about on the Wednesday podcast, he's won twice coming into this event. He's won two big events. He was really tested at the players championship and that playoff. And we spent a lot of time talking about the idea of his mentality going into that playoff that he, he was, he knew he was going to walk to that 16 T on Monday morning at TPC Sawgrass. And he knew exactly how he needed to execute. And you did it.

And when you do it under that kind of pressure and you do it with that kind of title hanging in the balance, I don't think you can overstate how important that is to a competitor like Rory McIlroy. He won a signature event at Pebble Beach. As you and I both pointed out, if you look at what he has done statistically this season so well, strokes gain approach, he's putting really well. He's obviously driving the ball better than anyone else. Coming into this event,

I don't know that in the last decade, as he has been on this quest to complete the career Grand Slam, I have seen him in better form. And you pointed it out and we can go on and on. And we always have a little bit of fun with this. He hasn't stopped searching. I mean, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, Rory McIlroy was never going to be guilty of that.

because he's always trying to find whatever the magic formula is. And I'm not even quite sure he found it this time, because let's be honest, this wasn't a wire-to-wire dominant performance. I think what he discovered about himself this week is that he can be resilient, that maybe all of that patience over the last decade can pay off. But I don't think he would, if he's being honest with himself tonight during that celebration, he's not going to tell anybody that, yep, I got it figured out, I'm going to win a couple of these.

I mean, I don't care what the statistics say in terms of like strokes gained total, but like Roy McIlroy is a much better player now than

than he was in 2011 to 2014 when he won those four major championships in quick succession. The changes he has made with his approach play and covering the ball better, sort of sawing off the finish that obviously translates as well to the softer golf ball that he's playing. Like that has clearly worked. And remember last fall, right after he had this sort of disappointing, obviously U.S. Open, he failed to win the BMW PGA. He failed to win the Irish Open. He locked himself in.

in that swing, that little swing room where he couldn't see the ball flight and it was dark and he was just, he was just in there for two weeks. Like, I think that has a massive impact on what he's doing now as a player, getting his swing in a better spot finally and understanding that that was the biggest differentiator between how he plays the game and how Scotty Scheffler plays the game. And now all of a sudden he's ripped off a season.

like Scottie Scheffler is doing in 2024 to 2025. The short game is so much tidier. The putting, and he's worked with Brad Fax since 2018, is so much better. I think there's other factors that go into it as well. I think he benefited certainly from his competition being just a little bit off.

This guy, Scheffler, still winless in 2025. Xander Shoffley, a two-time major winner in 2024, still recovering from the rib issue. Jon Rahm's game is a little bit of a mystery. Like, I don't think he had a clear threat at this point, and he has been by far the best player on the PGA Tour in 2025. And I think that was beneficial as well. But I also think, Rex, that luck plays a big part in this. Mm-hmm.

The number of times that he drove into the trees and was able to escape it. Now, they were incredible recovery shots out of the trees. Sometimes he was hooking them. Sometimes he was cutting them. Sometimes they were high. Sometimes they were low. Like every single time he had an out. And I had an interesting theory posited to me. Did the tree loss that Augusta National sustained in the hurricane? Those would have been the tallest trees ever.

Those falling over and sort of clearing the way and thinning out some of those heavily wooded areas to allow these recovery efforts. Did they help Roy McIlroy? Certainly. I think it's at least a reasonable theory. Ball staying up on Levin, being able to make four double bogeys and still coming away with the victories. Like there's a confluence of events as to why Roy McIlroy won this major championship. But I do think luck certainly played a big portion as well.

And he said it himself. He said he rode his luck all week long. And then in a moment of clarity, he said, maybe I deserved a little luck considering what I've endured. I think I deserve it. What a great line. And I think there's something to be said for that. As far as the trees, I'm not buying that one because everyone else was playing from the same trees.

And I didn't see anyone else pulling off the magic acts that he did. Like some, sometimes it's your week and you're going to end up with windows where others don't end up with windows, which leads me to where I did want to go. And again, I hate doing shot by shot. I don't particularly care what club he hit on the, on the 72nd hole.

However, I was fascinated and you were in there when he went through his car and he was asked, what was the best shot of the day? And this is a, it is kind of an interesting question because it always ends up being something that you didn't expect. His answer was something I didn't expect because I, you could argue it was a nine iron on number seven. I thought it was a wedge, but how he launched it and where it ended up, it could have, it could have gone really, really poorly.

there. And he ended up having a birdie look on that hole. Certainly you look at what he did with his second shot on 15. I thought that was going to be the shot of the turn. And I mean, that was just pure gold. I don't know that I've ever seen anything so good. What he did on the playoff hole with his second shot after hitting what was a really sloppy wedge to play the same hole in regulation. I thought that

to rebound off of that and not be sort of disturbed by any demons that may still be around. I thought that was really impressive. None of those things were it.

His favorite shot of the day was his second on the third hole. And I kind of get where he's coming from because he got off to such a terrible start. And I get it. He parsed the second hole, which is a birdie hole. He obviously makes the double on one. And you even mentioned it when he drives it close to the green. And I thought this was probably one of the better vantage points. We always talk about you can't really get a sense of Augusta. The elevation changes until you're actually on property. I thought that shot did a really good job.

job of showing people exactly how far below the green he was. And it was going to be a delicate chip up the hill and the way he bumped it in the bank and gave himself a birdie opportunity that he ended up converting. That was the shot of the week for him. The most important shot, which I think is an important distinction. I think at that point in time, he absolutely needed it. And I think you make a great point too. Like Rory is, is different in the variety of shots that,

that not just he can even visualize, but the ones that he can even pull off. And like, you could just rattle them real quick. Like the bump and run into the hill on three, the high floating five iron that he had on four that stopped on a dime, the whirly bird high cut out of the trees on seven that you mentioned the

the three quarter lob wedge that he didn't spend too much on nine that of course, you know, I think earlier in his career would have ripped that right off the front. And then all of a sudden you've got a really dicey 30 yarder. I mean, the shot that he hit from the hanging lie on 10, that initially he hated it and ended up hitting it to 10 feet and making birdie there. Like he,

over and over the slinging hook on 15 that the, the, I think it was an eight iron into 16 that sort of hung on that top shelf. The one on 17 sort of curving it around the tree as well. The drives over and over again, both in regulation and in the playoff on 18 that left him just 125 yards into the 18th hole. There's guys usually hitting six and seven irons into that hole and he's hitting gap wedge. And so like it's, it's the artistry,

It is the caliber of shots that he can hit, but I think it's like the deep arsenal of shots.

that he has as well, that at his disposal, and he has the confidence, of course, to pull them off. That was something that really stood out because, yes, he certainly made mistakes. That's why he shot 73. He missed a bevy of putts that could have put this tournament on ice much earlier that I think really could have served as, you know, sort of iconic moments, whether it was going to be on seven, could have converted that one, or 15, could have converted that one. But, like, the artistry and the creativity he showed on the final round certainly stood out to me.

I mean, and you look at just the mental toughness, just the physical gifts. We were pretty clear about this. We, I, when you asked me why, okay, I was going to pick him on Wednesday. Way to go on. You're picking the world. Number two yet. I know you, you're taking a huge chance there. And I,

And I made it perfectly clear it was going to be the mental challenge that was going to be the hardest. Physically, he has proven time and time again he can play this golf course. Can he get over the demons of 2011 and everything that's happened over the last decade? And certainly what happened last year at Pinehurst, to a certain degree, was going to be in the back of his head. I said this morning on Live From when you and I were kind of talking about the pairing. I actually thought it was the perfect pairing for him.

him because it wasn't going to be a friendly, comfortable pairing. Would he have rather been with Shane Lowry? Absolutely. They're their best friends. They're going to play in new Orleans again together where they're going to be defending champions. Yes. It would have been a fun celebration, but I think Rory needed that edge. He clearly is not,

Best friends, I think, is the kindest way I can possibly say that with Bryson DeChambeau. And I think in that given arena, it gave him just one more chip on his shoulder that he was able to take to the tee box and say, I'm going to prove everyone wrong and I'm going to beat him. Yeah, but I do think that rematch fizzled.

And it fizzled quickly. We're going to get into Bryson. Bryson didn't play. Yeah. We're going to golf today. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, we're going to get to Bryson after the break here, but this was certainly a battle between Rory and himself battling the expectation, battling the burden, battling the decade of doubt, battling the golf course, which was getting increasingly firm, battling a leaderboard full of unexpected contenders, you know,

you know, battling the inopportune or inexcusable miss that he had late. Like this was, this was clearly mental warfare that he was enduring. And I think that's why he was so gassed at the end. I think it's also why he was so satisfied at the end. I want to get a little bit silly Rex before we go to break here. The single season slam, the single season, super slam for Roy McIlroy. Wow. Is not completely off the table. He's already won the players.

He's already won the Masters.

Next month's PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow, where I believe he's won four times. Holds the course record. Holds the course record. The U.S. Open at Oakmont, a driver's paradise. Rory McIlroy, one of the best drivers of the golf ball on the planet. Also, his U.S. Open record is better than I think a lot of people give him credit for. Six consecutive top tens in golf's toughest major. And then, oh yeah, the Open Championship is a home game at Royal Portrush. I'm not saying it's going to happen.

I'm also not saying it ain't going to happen. You buying it? No. And the reason goes back to what I talked about on Wednesday because of the emotion. And you make a really good point. I hadn't even skipped that far ahead. But Charlotte is a perfect setup for him. He's won there so many times. He had so much success on that golf course. And you're right. I think the U.S. Open is always going to be

a good fit for his style of game. And we never know what to expect at Port Rush. I think in its debut when Shane Lowry won, everyone was impressed. Everyone knew immediately that this course was going to go into their open rotation for all the right reasons. But you also have to remember, if I remember correctly, Rory hit it out of bounds on the very first tee shot. Internal OB.

I didn't even realize there was internal OB over there until we actually got to where the ball was. And I think his reaction, I believe it was on Friday after his round, the emotion. I would argue that maybe after what we saw today here at Augusta national, that's the most emotional I've ever seen Rory McIlroy at a golf tournament and whistling straights. The Ryder cup certainly would, would rank in there as well because he does have a tendency to wear his emotion on his sleeves. I think that one would be very difficult for him for those reasons.

again he knows what it would mean to northern ireland for him but that's back but that's three months and and two other majors but you're combining but you're combining it all together you you can't you can't ignore the obvious at that point he's got it he's got it he's got to still get there first and i'm saying it's not unrealistic to think that that he could win next month at no hollow and then all of a sudden the conversation becomes very interesting

And look, we're going to revisit this. I'm sure if he does win at Queral Hollow and I could, I could see him winning the U S open as well. And then imagine everything that's piled on top of that. Not only are you going back to Northern Ireland, not only are you going to Port Rush, but you have a chance of doing something that's never been done in the modern era. Like forget about joining the career grand slam club, which we have talked endlessly about how of a,

huge monumental accomplishment. That is, I can't imagine the pressure that that would create. And I think once we, you take a deep dive tonight and I'm sure you're going to do a very, very good job of how,

heavy this has been on his shoulders. And he didn't hide it after the fact. Brad Faxon did a really good job of sort of breaking down to us that, yeah, we've all been in the middle of this. We all know exactly what this means. Now, times that times 10 going to Port Rush, man, that would be tough. I know, but I think something has been unlocked in Roy McIlroy. I mean, checking this box, which has been unchecked for more than a decade,

at this point has to free him up moving forward. And if he can survive this, if he can endure the months of hype and expectation, if he can lead heading into the final round, I know he did not play his best on Sunday, but if he can still accomplish what has been a lifelong dream, I mean, I don't think there's anything that is off the table for Roy McIlroy. And who knows? This could have happened last year. This guy, Sheffield, won the players. He won the Masters.

Who knows? He could have won the PGA Championship if he didn't have a significant life event. And then he runs into Officer Brian Gillis in Louisville. Like this certainly could have happened a year ago. Again, I'm not saying it's going to happen. But the way Roy is playing, the freedom that he is now is experiencing having the major the major list drought over. I don't know.

I think I'm very excited for Charlotte and Quail Hollow in the PGA Championship. I'm with you. Not out of the realm of possibility. I'm just stating the obvious here. It would be such a difficult mountain for him to climb because of all of the things that I just pointed out. This just isn't some other Open. Certainly, if it was at St. Andrews, that would come with a layer of complexity as well. But this is a home game. The march to the PGA Championship actually begins tomorrow.

This week at the RBC Heritage. Rex, you're going to be out there for a couple of days on Hilton Head Island. Certainly look forward to that. Coverage at the RBC Heritage begins Thursday on Golf Channel. More Masters Breakdown right after this short break. All right, Rex, this was billed, at least on Sunday at Augusta National, as this rematch with the showdown between Roy McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau. Certainly seemed like we were going to get that over the first half hour, first hour of

of the final round of the masters did not necessarily materialize what went wrong with Bryson Sunday at Augusta National same thing that had been going wrong all week long and I would I haven't had a chance to watch live from tonight but I would refer everyone to Saturday nights live from when our colleague Brando Chamblee did a brilliant job of breaking down exactly how poor his ball striking was specifically his approach play and if you look at it and I'm going back to Saturday here he put himself in positions where he had no business getting it up and down and

He did a really good job. He putted well. He obviously chipped well. And he drove the ball brilliantly. I think you did a good job of sort of pointing out that not only was he in the top five in the field in driving distance, but I think he was in the top 10 or 15 in accuracy. So that's usually a pretty good combination, especially on this particular golf course. So there is no real excuse other than his iron play was just off. And I think we saw that Saturday night when he was on the range until well past 10.

8.30 p.m., looking for some sort of answer. He had five bags of balls on Saturday night just to hit iron shots. He wasn't hitting drivers, just irons. I can't wait to actually get back to my desk and actually count how many balls he hit for the week. Because I bet you he played...

I'm going to put the over under at 25 rounds this week. If you just acquitted, I'm going to take it over. That's probably a pretty good one. He finished the week strokes, gain approach 48 out of, I think 52 players made the cut. I think that's all you really need to know. And we know I brought this up numerous times this week, this golf course, Augusta national is the number one GIR bias on the PGA tour. If you have to do one thing, well, everyone thinks it's putting, that's not it at all. You have to have your approach play on point because it's so exacting it's

It's so demanding. We saw it time after time today where he would hit what he thought was a good shot and it would catch a ridge or it would spin back off the green or it would jet long, whatever the case may be. And it was never really there. I don't know that I would call this day –

disappointing on any level because it really wasn't. If we would have asked the golf guys, you don't think this was disappointing for Bryson, his best chance to win a green jacket and to reassert his dominance over his nemesis, Roy McIlroy. I do. I guess what I was getting at is if I, if we asked the golf gods on Wednesday that, okay, give us this best case scenario that that's what we would have got on the first team. It would have been Rory and Bryson going head to head.

All of the subtext, the narrative going into it. Last year at Pinehurst, Rory trying to complete the career grand slam. You could even add the PGA Tour live stuff in there if you wanted to. That seems trite at this point when we're talking about this competition. But it had everything you could possibly want. It was a blockbuster hit, and it absolutely came up flat.

for Bryson. And he had the opportunity with the way Rory started. He had the opportunity to come out and make a statement and to take the lead and maybe pull away a little bit. And he just, I think finally, all of those things that Brando pointed out caught up with him. He put himself in positions that he simply wasn't going to be able to get up and down from. And he talked about it after the round. He simply wasn't sharp enough. And that's

He's only going to get away with that for so long on this golf course. I will say it sets up a compelling summer. This is still the same guy that did what he did last year at Pinehurst. This is still the same guy that's won two U.S. Opens. I can only imagine going into Charlotte what the buzz is going to be because you have Rory coming off of this high, and I'm not quite sure if Bryson is going to need to recover. I think he's going to roll into the PGA Championship with just as much momentum as he had this week. Okay.

And look, Augusta National, you mentioned how much of a ball striker's golf course it is, how important iron play is. Any guesses who's the number one player in strokes gained approach for the week of the Masters? Yes, Rex, go ahead. Roy McIlroy. Yes, eventual winner. Roy McIlroy indeed led that category, while Bryson DeChambeau, as you mentioned, was 51st in that category. The big high draws are just not a good fit for what Augusta National requires. Yes, I know he's coming in

at apexes that the few players can reach, but that sort of spin, that sort of shot shape with your approach play and not really varying it hole to hole has, has never been a good fit for Bryson. I mean, all credit to him that he even put himself in position, given some of the spots that he was finding, uh,

across Augusta national. I mean, led the field in scrambling and strokes gained around the greens. He putted great, at least for a couple of days. I know he didn't have his best performance on Sunday, but I think what Bryson really showed is just an immense amount of grit and competitive spirit and heart to have nowhere near his best approach game. And yet still give it to a player who I think is, is by is playing by far better.

the best golf of anyone on the planet. I think nothing but positives for Bryson and Shambo, but I'm not all that surprised by what transpired on Sunday. I thought it'd be a runaway from Roy McIlroy, at least to Bryson Shambo. And it certainly was in that direction, but yeah,

This is an issue that has plagued Bryson for the past couple of months, and he didn't find the magic elixir at Augusta National. He seems to think that's an equipment issue, and he said he's going to have some exciting equipment news, quote, very, very soon on this front, just as he did with the curved face of the driver. I'm not putting it past Bryson. I think he can figure it out. I think he probably does sort of derive a lot of confidence from

and sort of from his equipment. But it's clear this has been an issue for the last couple months, and it was clear that it was going to cost him at the Masters. How about Justin Rowe's

Rex, what stood out to you about sausage finger, please? Yeah. Goldie has actually given us the information. It was 1029 shots. I believe that was on a practice tournament area. And that equates to, I believe, 14 rounds of golf. If he's shooting par of 72, which we would expect Bryson to shoot much better than that. He has proven himself.

to be the marathon man. And that doesn't seem to be changing. I think when I watch that and you and I probably had this conversation early in the week, there's always going to be alarm bells because there's only so much stress his body can take. You actually asked him how, how his body was able to hold up to this. He talks about maybe doing the long driving stuff. That's going to take a toll.

as well. So I am curious about that, but to your point, I would argue what Rory was able to do at TPC Sawgrass, clearly without his best stuff, certainly off the tee gave him nothing but confidence coming into this week, thinking that, yes, if I have to play, so it was kind of for Rory, I'm going to say this, a 300 plus confidence,

soft fade just to make sure I get it somewhere close to the fairway. I can do that and still keep myself into contention. He didn't win this week, but I think you're absolutely right. The fact that he knows that, man, I was probably two or three degrees off where I needed to be with my iron play. And I was still right there until at least the opening nine holes on Sunday. That's encouraging.

How about Justin Rose, Rex? Falls in a playoff at Augusta National. His second playoff defeat lost to Sergio Garcia, who also buried the first playoff hole in 2017. Now he loses to Roy McIlroy, stuffing it to two feet.

on the first playoff hole in 2025. Second consecutive major for Rosie at the age of 44, getting himself in the mix all the way down to the finish line. What stood out to you about what he could accomplish? And do you believe there's still a shining day that Justin Rose can have in the major championships?

And Ian Summer, man. I mean, it took us a long time, you and I specifically to figure out exactly 10 people, exactly what that meant. We appreciate all our friends from the UK finally bringing us around. We were not very quick on that one, but yeah, it's fun to watch this at 44 years old, which I don't think in golf years.

off terms is that old, especially if you're Justin Rose, who is clearly taking care of himself. He's going to great extremes to make sure his body is able to cooperate. I can imagine that he's going to continue to do this for the next few years. We're not talking about this year, next year. I think he can be competitively

well into his late 40s, if not his early 50s, because of the things he's been able to do with his body. And he's never had a serious injury. This isn't a person where we've talked about him like a Tiger Woods or Will Zalatour. He's never really been debilitated by an injury. So absolutely. And you look at what he was able to do this week, where it would have been really easy after those first two rounds and he struggles on Saturday to kind of go quietly.

Because he knows the stage is set for Rory and Bryson. That's why everyone was here on Sunday. And for him to do what he did and to finish off and to make the birdie on 18. He loves those birdies and the big moments. That does not bode well for Team USA later this year at the Ryder Cup. I think it's going to be impressive and fun to watch him going forward. Because that Indian summer is only going to get more and more prolific.

Yeah, I mean, Justin Rose is a borderline Hall of Famer. I think at this point I would probably already put him in just based on the quality of his resume. But I was struck by something they said earlier in the week at Augusta National, where the real measure for him is whether he likes to go out and play by himself. And can he still enjoy it at this stage of his career? And if the answer is yes, then that means he's willing to make all the necessary sacrifices to compete against the world's best players who are younger, faster and stronger.

And what Justin Rose has done over the past couple of years in particular is reinvest in himself, reuniting with his longtime caddy, Mark Fulcher, with whom he experienced the most success, hooking up with Mark Blackburn and sort of redefining what his swing was going to be and sort of throwing out the loose parts and trying to make it much more efficient. I think, you know, he might not be as consistent.

as he was in sort of his heyday, but the good is still very good. It can pop up on occasion. Even with less opportunity, he can really sort of maximize it. And I think, you know, from a physical standpoint, physiological standpoint, he has invested in himself in new ways, has an entire team of physiotherapists to sort of overcome the back issues that plagued him sort of in his mid-30s. And he's now at a point where even at the age of 44, he's treating himself like he's in his late 20s early.

early 30s and that's why I think you know he can still extend this Indian summer I'm not sure if I'm still using this phrase correctly just a little bit just just just a little bit longer a hell of a player incredible performance a Sunday 66 that tied the low round of the day

All right. Plenty more Masters Breakdown. I'm sure we're going to have on Wednesday because, of course, we do this podcast twice a week, not just once on linear television. Rex and I'll be back on Wednesday for another edition of Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lab with Rex's full report from RBC Heritage. We'll be right back after this short break.

All right, Rex, among the thousands of people who reached out to Roy McIlroy on X slash Twitter to congratulate him on his master's victory was European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald. Boy, old captain's got to be feeling himself at this point, huh?

I mean, if you're Luke Donald right now, you're on top of the world. I think Rory McIlroy is probably the happiest person right now. Certainly he's the most relieved person. But if you're Luke Donald looking ahead to the Ryder Cup, and it's early days, as they say in the UK, but you have to love what you saw this week. Not only did Rory McIlroy win, and that's going to free him up going the rest of the season, but Justin Rose was alone in second. We talked about how important he is to that team and what it means for him to be going through this season.

You had Luvick right there. He ended up finishing seventh, but it was because he was trying to be a little overly aggressive. That easily could have been a top three or four finish looking ahead. I just think all of these things combined add up to he is going to go into that with so much confidence every year. And I'm sure we're going to do it this year. We're going to do the paper thing on paper. The U.S. team is going to be the stronger team. But year in and year out or every two years and every two years out,

we see that it doesn't matter to the Europeans. They seem to come up clutch more often than not than the Americans do. Today was an example of that. I'm not sure on paper the Americans are actually going to be the stronger team at this point. Like Luke Donald's got to be praying that this team is not peaking too early, and Keegan Bradley's got to be praying that this team is going to pick up in form. You look at the Europeans. I mean, from Roy McRoy to Jon Rahm. You mentioned Justin Rose, Ludwig, Hatton.

Hovland has won this year. Sepp Straka has won this year and is playing his best golf. Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, the Hogard twins. I mean, this team is going to be stacked 1 through 12. Keegan Bradley better see something out of his boys because it's a little bit of a trouble spot right now as it relates to Team USA.

No, I agree. And like, look again, early days, we have three majors to play. Yeah. You have no idea what's going to happen in the playoffs. And I think there's plenty of time, but as Luke Donald prepares for this year's matches and he starts going through potential pairings, it's so much easier for him, for him than it is for Keegan. All right. Speaking of two Ryder cup stalwarts, how about these two players? Both live players, a little bit disappointing. John Rom ended up having a good Sunday to finish in the tie for 14th while Brooks Koepka

missed the cut at Augusta national. What conclusions can you draw from two of lives biggest superstars? To be fair, when it comes to John Rom, this is just his fourth major since he joined live golf. And we always said, we're going to judge him on what he does in the major championships. He only played three last year. He was injured for one with that foot injury. So I'm not quite sure if there's enough there in the case study, but,

I don't know if there's enough rope for us to actually decide if the decision to go to live golf is a good decision or a bad decision. But certainly when he shows up at this golf course, and he ended up finishing well on Sunday, but I think by and large, it was a bit of an underwhelming performance for Jon Rahm at a golf course where he has had so much success. And he talked about it coming into this week that, yes, last year's major season was not his favorite major season. But he also said that he was being judged unfairly by his team

production by his performances and the major championships. That's going to be his reality going forward. He may not like it, but the general public is only going to look at what he does in the major championships. And he continues to do this. I will give him the benefit of the doubt now, but that's going to run out after, I don't know, this year, next year, sometime. I mean, he was a non-factor again,

which is something that we've never said about Jon Rahm. I mean, this is one of the players who's going to go down as one of the greatest European players ever, and yet he has been a non-factor in the major championships now for four consecutive, as you mentioned. I think that Jon Rahm sort of bristled at the fact that people aren't viewing my consistency in a positive light like they used to on the PGA Tour when I finished 48% of the time inside the top 10. I think what's most concerning about Jon Rahm is that he's not winning.

He's not winning on the live circuit either. Like when John Rahm signed with live golf back in fall, 2023, I got that. Wow. This guy's going to win six or seven times. And that is not transpired. He won only twice in 2024 has yet to win in 2025. I want to see John Rahm could reassert himself as the dominant player on live from a victory standpoint. That's just a consistency standpoint. How about Brooks Koepka with his now five consecutive major championships when he finished outside the top 25.

I mean, missing the cut is difficult. You have to play really bad to miss the cut at the Masters. This is by far is the easiest to do it. And he didn't even look particularly sharp. It's not as though it was it was close. It's not like, oh, he just he made a mess of the last hole and wasn't around for the weekend. I think there is something off.

And no one turns it around quicker than Brooks. We've seen it time and time again throughout his career. And he can show up at Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship next month and something can click. And next thing you know, he's in the mix. But he, too, to a certain degree, has become a non-factor in the major championships. And that's more concerning to me because his career, his identity is attached to those major championships.

especially now with Roy McIlroy matching him with five major championships in their career. Brooks did split with Claude Harmon last year, now working full-time with Pete Cowan, one of the best in Europe. Brooks is certainly going to have to turn around at Quail Hollow. Big boy golf course. Probably more of a fit where he currently is with his game. How about this one, Rex? I thought it was a very interesting story earlier in the week with Nick Dunlap, the two-time winner on the PGA Tour, the first amateur since Phil Mickelson in 1991 to win on the PGA Tour in 2024. Opened with a 90.

At the Masters, rebounded with a 71. What did Nick Dunlap's current plight tell you?

We don't have enough time because there's a lot of things to pick apart and this pains me so much, but you might've been right. And I'll go back to last year at the American express when he won and I was there and he was an amateur. And I think you said something along the lines is maybe he shouldn't turn pro. Maybe he should stay at Alabama and enjoy that final year of college and then turn pro because he would have still had the exemptions. And I remember barking at you at the top of my lungs as loud as I possibly could. That's ridiculous. Like in,

the era that we live in and professional golf, you turn pro. Now you take advantage of all those starts and signature events and you make the most of it because trust me, there's plenty of players who would love to be in that position. Now, fast forward a year and however many months since then. Yes, he's won again since then, but he's also struggled mightily and what we saw out of him this week. And I will give him credit because it's going to be a bigger conversation that we continue to have about, about golf.

media access to players. And after that round on Friday, he sort of let the world in to the struggles and the pain and how difficult this is and how haunting it is to try so hard to do something that you absolutely love and get absolutely nothing in return for it. There was a bunch of really good stories written about this, including yours when it comes to Nick Dunlap. And I think it's a litmus test of

Yes, young players are more prepared for the PGA Tour coming out of college now. We've touched on this time and time again. However, not all of them are. And maybe it would have served Nick Dunlap really well to spend another year in Tuscaloosa and to maybe mature a little bit and maybe become more comfortable because once you turn pro, you're essentially on your own.

He won on the PG tour a couple of months later after enduring a little bit of a rough patch, but I mean, it's clear he is in a very dark place. All credit to him for speaking with the media here at Augusta national is in the field this week at the RBC heritage. Got to be hoping Nick Dunlap finds his way out. He is certainly an immense talent. All right. That,

that is going to do it for this edition of the golf channel podcast with Rex and lab. Thank you guys for all of the support, all of the comments, all the clicks, all the downloads all week, not just on NBC sports.com, but also on our YouTube page. We certainly appreciate all the patronage there. It was so fun bringing you guys the 89th masters, all of our recaps. You guys are the drill NBC sports.com slash golf for lace news, notes, and updates stories from Rex, myself and our colleague, Brentley Romine. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support.

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