Rory McIlroy’s caddie Harry Diamond pleaded with him to avoid one of the recovery shots that proved crucial in securing his Masters victory last year. The Northern Irishman will return to Augusta National this month to defend his title.
McIlroy’s 2025 was a remarkable year for numerous reasons, but none more significant than his triumph at the Masters and the completion of a career Grand Slam. It required a tense playoff against Justin Rose to seal the deal and he battled Bryson DeChambeau throughout the final round. It was during this decisive day that a wayward tee shot left McIlroy in a difficult position. The 36-year-old held a two-shot advantage over DeChambeau at the start of the round, but by the time the pair reached the Par 4 seventh, McIlroy had stretched his lead to three shots.
Off the tee, however, he missed dramatically to the left and found himself nestled amongst the trees. A heated exchange followed between McIlroy and caddie Diamond over whether he should simply chip back onto the fairway and try settle for par, or attempt to thread a shot through the trees in pursuit of a birdie.
Speaking on Amazon Prime Video’s Rory McIlroy: The Masters Wait, he said: “Seven was a tee shot all week that I struggled with. When I was walking up to it, I’m just like, ‘Please have something. Some sort of shot and some sort of gap.’
“The one thing Harry and I always say to ourselves is, ‘All I want is a backswing and a gap.’ Harry was begging me, he was like, ‘Just chip it out, we can make four [par] this way.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, I’ve got a gap I can see a gap here.’ He’s like, ‘What are you talking about? There’s nothing there.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, I can get a 9-iron up, and I can do this.'”
That is precisely what McIlroy pulled off. His strike discovered the tiniest of openings and did catch the pines, but was executed to perfection, and he nearly holed out from the first cut 152 yards distant.
McIlroy could only chuckle after this strike, but that grin quickly faded when his birdie attempt came up marginally short. However, this miss did not return to haunt McIlroy, and when he was given a play-off birdie opportunity to claim the Masters on 18, he delivered, having been unable to salvage par for the title in regulation from five feet.
Discussing that green jacket-clinching make, he said: “The only difference with the three-footer in the playoff rather than the five-footer in regulation is I was sure of the line in the playoff. I was a little bit indecisive with my line or my read in regulation. Again, one of the blessings, but also the curses, of going back to Augusta every year is you remember all of these putts.
“Whether it be your putts or other people’s putts that you’ve seen on the coverage. I always remember everyone putting from right of that hole location on 18. If they miss it, they miss it high. That was in the back of my head, so I probably gave it a little less break than I maybe would have, and I should have went (sic) with my first instinct.”