AUGUSTA, GA. The story book ending for this year’s Masters was appropriate. A golfer from Holywood, Northern Ireland had a climax that not even a Hollywood script writer could have penned.
Here are the eight specific outcomes we learned from this year’s first major championship.
Rory’s story — resilience
If there’s one specific dimension McIlroy had to show in capturing the green jacket it was resilience. There were several instances throughout the tournament. In the first round, he suffered two late double-bogies in the round and a likely sub-70 score was negated.
But he came back in rounds two and three to score identical rounds of 66. In the final round he started play with another double-bogey. Then he showed strength with two consecutive birdies at the 3rd and 4th holes.
When McIlroy reached the par-5 13th he opted for a safe route but inexplicably played a poor sand wedge that found Rae’s Creek by the green. His fourth double-bogey happened and he followed up with another bogey at the 14th.
McIlroy’s resilience paid off with a brilliant second shot into the par-5 15th. His approach was six-feet away and although he missed scoring an eagle as he did the day prior, he was able to get his game back on track. The birdie at the penultimate hole placed him in the lead and even after missing a five-foot winning putt at the 18th, he was able to end the playoff with Justin Rose with two magnificent shots at the 18th and then sunk the 4-foot putt for the title.
No past Masters winner had ever double-bogied four holes in going on to claim the green jacket. McIlroy’s desire to keep plugging onward even when facing various setbacks is the prime reason he won the Masters and became just the 6th golfer to have won the career Grand Slam.
Just in and just out – Rose nearly blooms
The performance of Justin Rose was the tournament’s most unexpected. Rose finished runner-up at last year’s Open Championship at Royal Troon but his play coming into Augusta — two top ten finishes but also three missed cuts in seven total evens — did not suggest such a strong performance was most likely.
Rose surprised early with an opening 65- the 5th time he had placed himself in the lead after 18 holes — a Masters record. After 36 holes he still held the lead. But during Saturday’s “moving day” 3rd round – Rose went backwards with a woeful 75 score.
In Sunday’s final round – Rose score of 66 tied for the low round of the day and came about with ten birdies made. Coming to the final and needing a birdie to give him a possibility in stealing the title, Rose magically sunk the 20-foot putt.
That putt and the McIlroy bogey at the final hole propelled the Englishman into his second playoff — after losing to Sergio Garcia in 2017. On the first playoff hole Rose had a 15-foot birdie putt but the ball just missed outside the hole allowing McIlroy to finish off matters with his 3-foot birdie putt.
The 44-year-old Rose won the 2013 U.S. Open and has been a consistent team member from various European Ryder Cup teams. Ranked 12th in the world, Rose remains relevant at elite level golf. One can only wonder if he had made his 15-foot playoff putt would that have impacted McIlroy’s effort? Justin time early happened for a Rose that nearly had full bloom at Augusta.
Ludvig’s lasting lesson
The Swedish golf sensation made headlines quickly after ending his collegiate career at Texas Tech University. The 25-year-old was selected as a Captain’s pick for the 2023 Ryder Cup and this happened before he had played in a single major championship.
Åberg made his debut at the 2024 Masters and finished as runner-up to winner Scottie Scheffler.
The rocket-like lift-off has continued in 2025 when he won his second PGA Tour victory at the The Genesis Invitational.
At this year’s Masters, Ludvig played steady golf but only entered the picture of the top of the leaderboard late in the final round. Trailing by six shots he was able to secure a brief three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with two holes remaining.
After reaching the green with a quality approach near the left trees on the penultimate hole Ludvig was left with a 20-foot birdie putt that would have elevated him to -11. Without any sensible reason the putt traveled 10 feet beyond the hole and he ultimately three-putted.
At the final hole his tee shot found the left fairway bunker. Then his second failed to escape and his third shot finished in the right greenside bunker. A poor recovery followed and he eventually ended his round with a triple-bogey finish.
Ludvig’s talent is unquestionable but his inability to give himself an opportunity to join Rose and McIlroy at the final hole is a lesson he will need to remember the next time he finds himself in such a strong position for a major victory.
Scheffler’s mid-tournament slump
When world-ranked number one Scottie Scheffler arrived at Augusta he had the opportunity to match what only Jack Nicklaus had done – win the green jacket three times in four years.
Scheffler started his pursuit with a quality four-under-par round of 68. But over the next two rounds his progress up the leaderboard stalled with rounds of 71 and 72.
During those rounds Scheffler’s usually reliable iron play was inconsistent. On a number of holes, he was out-of-position for his approaches and when he did find the putting surfaces was unable to show any real consistency with his putting stroke.
Scheffler trailed McIlroy by seven shots for the final round but he had closed the margin to two shots by the 14th hole. Just when he needed to make a final 4-hole run with a few birdies his round stalled and he could only imagine consecutive pars.
In 2024 Scheffler produced nine global wins. He has not won in 2025 and some of that is attributable to needing surgery to remove glass fragments over the Christmas holidays while preparing food.
The surge by McIlroy is clearly ratcheting up the rivalry between the two. Scheffler’s success in 2024 came with utmost precision and the lack of mental errors.
How Scheffler performs for the remainder of the 2025 season is now front and center for the 28-year-old- Texan.
Risk has now returned to the par-5 13th and 15th holes.
When Bob Jones and Alister MacKenzie designed Augusta National the desire to challenge elite players was one of the core elements. The four par-5 holes were created primarily to force players to decide how much of a risk they are prepared to take for a clear reward when the execution was carried out correctly.
Over the course of time it became obvious because of vast improvements to club and ball technology that the risk on such holes was no longer problematic and had become a near certainty for easier scoring.
If there’s anything the leadership of Augusta National is ever vigilant about it is maintaining the core tenets of what Jones believed.
The 15th hole was modified several years ago. The tee was extended for additional yardage and trees were placed to tighten up the landing areas.
The 13th tee box was extended prior to the 2023 tournament. The changes were implemented to make the decision in going for the green in two shots more problematic. The previous yardage was 510 yards – the hole now plays to a max distance of 545 yards.
What this has meant is that the penalty areas protecting the respective putting greens have a higher frequency of involvement. Even McIlroy found the creek at the 13th and did so with his 3rd shot. DeChambeau in his quest to play catch-up late in the round had his second to the green at the 15th find the fronting pond.
Jones wanted the percentage of risk and reward to be close to a 50/50 proposition. The recent changes have clearly meant an improvement upon the manner in which one option is now weighed against the other.
Related: Behind the Architectural Curtain – Masters / 2025
When will Rahm return to peak form?
Anyone see the two-time major champion? Yes, he was at Augusta but finished T14. The 31-year-old played better on the weekend with rounds of 70-69 but because of a slow start — 75-71 — was unable to get near enough to the top of the leaderboard.
The 30-year-old left the PGA Tour and joined LIV Golf in December 2023 and while he has performed well there his inability in major events to be a strong presence is apparent.
In four majors played since leaving the PGA Tour he’s only had one top ten finish.
After Rahm won the 2021 U.S. Open the general sentiment was that he looked to be a perennial top five ranked player. Unfortunately, those who jumped to LIV Golf were hoping world ranking points would be added for the 54-hole events they play. That has not happened to date.
Can Rahm regain his form for the final three majors coming up this year?
We shall see.
Where have the last two U.S. Open champs been?
In 2022 Matthew Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Open. A year later Wyndham Clark did likewise. Neither had won a major before then. Both had displayed fine form leading into those events.
Fast forward to 2025 and Fitzpatrick has played in eight events this year. In none of them has he succeeded in finishing in the top 20. And, in three events, he has missed the cut.
Clark has played in nine events this year and his best performance came recently in Houston with a T5 placement. That remains his best finish. Given his form improving when coming to Augusta the expectation was for him to use that momentum and build upon it.
The Masters put Clark in reverse. He finished T46 and only had one notable round — scoring 68 on Friday.
Fitzpatrick is 30 and Clark is 31. Both clearly in their prime and can certainly re-enter the picture as leading contenders. However, the form they both displayed when winning the U.S. Open is quite distant from those moments.
Can they each regain the form they displayed? Right now – the jury is out on that question.
Masters ratings – most watched U.S. golf event in 7 years.
Final round viewing numbers in the U.S. averaged 12.707 million viewers, according to a CBS-Sports report.
That figure was 33 percent from 2024, when Scottie Scheffler won. Viewership reached its peak during the 7-7:15 pm timeframe at 19.543 million viewers.
Getting such eyeballs was made possible because of the winding down of the regular seasons for the NBA and NHL. Basketball fans are simply waiting for the playoffs to start. And Major League Baseball just got its season started.
What the numbers did show is that golf can draw viewers without the play of Tiger Woods. But one has to hasten to a clear reality. Such numbers came with an event – The Masters. The event is a global icon and the viewership numbers may simply spike for that specific reason and not have a much wider application.
