With the whole world watching him, Rory McIlroy produced the most dramatic yet perfect win at Augusta National. The Irishman was finally crowned the Masters Tournament champion and one of the owners of the prestigious Green Jacket. In turn, he also became the Grand Slam champion, only the sixth in history and the first after Tiger Woods in 2000. Before achieving all those outstanding records with one single putt, there were quite a few strokes that McIlroy got cursed for.

There was no need for a playoff. All the 29x PGA Tour winner needed was a par, and he was 4 feet away from sinking it. As we all know, McIlroy missed it. If the contest wasn’t so intense, the whole world would have stepped away from the television and gathered on X to tweet “Rory McIlroy choked again”. But everyone was glued to the screens from a distance, not recommended by the ophthalmologist. But the moment was so intense that all the fans could do was wait and complain why McIlroy let the lead slip again. Yes, he won the Masters. Yes, he is a Grand Slam champion now. However, the Irishman confirmed that he still gets asked why he let the tournament go into the playoffs.

Joining the ‘Tonight Show’ starring Jimmy Fallon, that was the same question that reappeared. Entering the studio to a warm welcome from Fallon, McIlroy looked sharply, all suited up in his new Green Jacket. After a round of congratulations, the 2025 Masters winner said, “I said that I wouldn’t come back here until I had this Green Jacket. So, I’m glad I made it back.” While McIlroy didn’t explicitly claim that on camera, his last appearance on the show was back in 2019. Since then, he has added 11 more titles to his trophy cabinet.

Continuing to be overly-enthusiastic as he always is, Fallon congratulated his guest once again. That prompted McIlroy to say, “It took me a while, but I got there,” before he broke into laughter. In response, the host mentioned, “Yeah, and you did it in the most dramatic way, too. A playoff! Why would you do that to yourself?!” as he screamed the question at Rors. “Everyone comes up to me and they are like, ‘You don’t know what you put us through on that Sunday’. I was like, ‘How do you think I was feeling?'” A very valid question, as we can imagine McIlroy has lived what the fans felt from afar for so long. The final round fumble in the 2011 Masters and the meltdown at Pinehurst in the 2024 U.S. Open are probably his worst experiences on the course.

Continuing the interview, Jimmy Fallon showed a picture from Augusta National where Rory McIlroy is seen kneeling on the green after finally winning the Green Jacket. It was met with an extremely loud cheer from the audience in attendance at the set. Fallon asks him what was going through his mind after he finally won the Masters after 17 appearances. With the load off his shoulders now, McIlroy confessed, “I’m just thinking, ‘Thank goodness! That is over.'” The Irishman’s 17th attempt to win the Green Jacket at last is the second most stabs someone has had at the Augusta National event. Wondering who is the one who ranks first? Well, that will be Sergio Garcia, who defeated Justin Rose in the playoffs to win it after 19 attempts in 2017.

McIlroy went on to discuss how he got close to winning in 2012 and how he has been chasing the Career Grand Slam since 2014. “I’d go back every year, and I’d put my positive hat on. Go with a good attitude. Every time I’d leave on that Sunday night, and that wouldn’t happen,” he said, giving a picture of what he was going through over the past 14 years. During this period, he had seven top 10 finishes at Augusta National. Speaking about his mental state during this time, McIlroy mentioned, “You start to think, is it ever going to be your time. Did I miss it? Have I lost my opportunity?” A lot of the times McIlroy has ‘choked’ might have come down to such self-doubt. Having suffered such big losses on the course, it’s easy for anyone to let that creep into their minds.

However, in the end, Rory McIlroy prevailed. He is the Grand Slam champion now. Based on this, he also said, “I think there is a good message in there about never giving up, and keep coming back and be strong and be resilient. That patience paid off.” The beautiful message was met with a loud cheer and lots of applause from the audience, the crew, and Jimmy Fallon himself.

However, he may have achieved it, the stage was perfectly set for Rory McIlroy. And his triumph was a win for golf as fans from around the world tuned in to watch him win.

Rory McIlroy’s Masters win draws record-breaking numbers

The last time fans were that crazy about the events at Augusta National was when Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth, and Rickie Fowler were competing for the Green Jacket event in 2018. Not even Tiger Woods‘s 5th in 2019 could overshadow that. Not that Rory McIlroy’s win did better, but it was just as compelling as anything that was seen during Spieth and Fowler’s pursuit.

The story, the drama, the madness until the very last second, and everything that followed was what made McIlroy’s win sweet. The ‘will he, or will he not(choke)’ question remained till the last putt. That ensured that over an average of 12 million people were hooked to the last round of the 2025 Masters Tournament. The period where McIlroy finally wore the Green Jacket drew a record-setting 19.543 million viewers on CBS. Paramount+ TV ratings confirmed that this was their largest-ever non-NFL event viewership. Shockingly, that didn’t break the broadcast and streaming services. This would be extremely difficult to replicate, at least in the near future. Or maybe Jordan Spieth makes it happen at Quail Hollow in a couple of weeks.

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