UR-Golf Blog Entry #15: Greatest Day In Golf

Masters Recap

Wow. Wow. Wow. What a momentous day for golf. Rory McIlroy joins the elite list of players to complete the Career Grand Slam, and boy, did he make it interesting. Coming into the final day with a 2-shot lead over Bryson Dechambeau, Rory quickly returned to the field with an opening double-bogey. Bryson then held the lead for what felt like 5 minutes, but Rory came back with birdies on 3, 4, and 9. After Rory striped his tee shot on 10, it felt as though he was going to run away with it. He was unstoppable. With a birdie on 10, his lead moved to 5 strokes. Who had what it takes to get in the way of Rory and his already historic year. I’ll tell you who. Justin Rose. Rosie was the 36-hole leader at -8, and after a +2, 74 on Saturday, his chances of competing on Sunday were slim. Or so we thought. He turned at -7, and he “found the place that people dream of going to on the second-9 at Augusta.” He was in complete control, making birdies on 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, and 18, and 10 total birdies on the day. The 44 year-old Englishman proved that he still has what it takes to compete in a major setting.

As much as I would have loved to witness history with Rory winning a Career Grand Slam, I have never rooted for somebody in golf like I did for Justin Rose. I don’t know if it was the perseverance he showed by being down 7-strokes after the 4th-hole or the fact that he is just a name we seem to see in every major, but Justin Rose’s back-9 was one of the most exciting 9’s I have ever watched. There were so many times throughout the day when everybody seemed to say, “Here we go again,” whether it was Rory’s double on 1, his third shot on 13 (which may have been the worst shot of his career), we thought he sealed the deal when he stuffed it on 15 (which may have been the best shot of his career) but ended up missing the eagle attempt, and then he missed the green on 18, and the 7-foot putt to win the tournament.

All in all, I am happy we don’t have to listen to everybody talk about Rory not being able to win majors before every tournament, and I can’t wait to relive the golf from yesterday on Full Swing next year. On a completely unrelated note, it is a little concerning how well the European Ryder Cup team looked this week compared to the Americans… just something to pay attention to going into the PGA Championship.