How Dubai victory set the stage for McIlroy's Masters success

It’s happened. It’s finally happened.

Rory McIlroy is a Masters champion and becomes only the sixth player in history to achieve the career Grand Slam - winning the PGA Championship, U.S. Open, Open Championship, and the Masters.

For those of us in the UAE who stayed up past 3 a.m. to witness this historic moment, it was absolutely worth it. But, in true McIlroy fashion, he put us all through the wringer.

Back-to-back rounds of 66 gave him a two-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round, but a double bogey on the first hole wiped out his advantage. From there, he clawed back with three birdies in seven holes, surging four shots clear with nine to play. Then came the drama: four dropped shots in four holes from the 11th, breathing life into the chasing pack.

Just as McIlroy was letting it slip away again, 36-hole leader Justin Rose birdied six of his final eight holes to force a playoff, reigniting his own dream of finally donning the Green Jacket after 20 attempts.

Had McIlroy thrown it away yet again? It felt like a microcosm of his career—brilliant, unpredictable, and occasionally maddening. But there was still hope for one last ascent before what looked like an inevitable drop.

Standing on the 18th tee for the first extra hole, McIlroy looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. But then, he delivered: a perfect drive, followed by an even better approach, setting up a birdie chance.

This time, he nailed it. The putt dropped, and with it came an outpouring of 14 years of emotion, frustration, and longing. It was the purest, most electrifying version of Rory McIlroy - raw, dramatic, and utterly compelling. This was theater at its finest.

It’s why McIlroy is so beloved. He’s relatable. While Scottie Scheffler is undoubtedly the world’s best player right now - his commanding lead in the Official World Golf Ranking speaks for itself - his dominance can sometimes feel, dare I say, boring?

It’s not to diminish Scheffler’s extraordinary talent, but his consistency lacks the human drama that McIlroy embodies.

Rory’s round at Augusta had it all - an inexplicable horror-show on the 13th from under 100 yards that found the water, one of the worst shots you’ll ever see on a golf course. What was he even trying to do? No one knows. But that’s the point: he’s human, not robotic.

From that to his audacious, nerve-defying second shot on the par-5 15th, over 200 yards away he stuck it in close for a gettable eagle opportunity - a hole where, just days earlier, he’d made a disastrous double bogey. It was almost unbelievable, especially after his meltdown over the previous two holes, where he’d dropped three shots.

Did he sink the putt to give himself some breathing room? Of course not. That would be far too straightforward.

And that’s precisely why people adore him.

"I know my 2024 will be remembered by many as much for the tournaments I didn’t win as the ones I did," McIlroy admitted after his triumphant victory at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai six months ago.

Despite equaling a record with his third title at Jumeirah Golf Estates, he wasn’t wrong. For all his brilliance, the year was destined to be judged through the lens of what might have been.

The season began with dazzling promise. A commanding victory at the Dubai Desert Classic seemed to herald a year of dominance. But the shine of that win was dulled by heartbreak just a week prior, when McIlroy’s ball sank in the water on the 18th hole at the Dubai Invitational, handing Tommy Fleetwood the title and leaving McIlroy to grapple with what could have been.

Five months later came perhaps the most agonizing chapter of his career. At Pinehurst, with the U.S. Open seemingly within his grasp, McIlroy faltered down the stretch. Bogeys on three of the final four holes extended his decade-long Major drought and marked his second consecutive runner-up finish in the championship—a crushing blow for a player of his stature.

The pain didn’t stop there. At the Irish Open, McIlroy came agonizingly close again, only to finish second. Another runner-up finish at the BMW PGA Championship further cemented the narrative of a season defined by narrow misses.

Yet amid the heartbreak, there were victories too - the two in Dubai and two on the PGA Tour. It was the final one, at the DP World Tour Championship, that seemed to restore McIlroy’s confidence and rewrite his story.

"This was an incredibly meaningful day for me," McIlroy reflected after that win. "To finish my season on a high note means so much."

In hindsight, it was a pivotal moment. After a year filled with crushing disappointments, that triumph in Dubai proved he still had the mettle to be feared and the potential to cement his legacy by achieving the career grand slam.

That victory became the springboard for further success, including wins earlier this year at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship. The errors that had plagued him in past failures - particularly at the Irish Open and the U.S. Open—were conspicuously absent. McIlroy 2.0 had arrived.

"It doesn’t feel like I’m making those mistakes at the critical times like I was before," he said after his Players Championship win. "A big part of that was just learning from those experiences."

Mistakes have haunted McIlroy at Augusta National, none more infamous than his 2014 collapse. Leading by four shots heading into the final round, he stumbled to an 80 and tumbled out of contention. For much of Sunday’s back nine this year, it felt as though history was repeating itself. Mistakes crept in again, threatening to undo him.

This time, though, the stakes were higher. Losing would have left scars too deep to heal. Even the game’s greatest legends might struggle to recover from such a blow.

But McIlroy found a way. Through all the chaos, heartbreak, and near-disaster, he recovered, delivering the most dramatic, chaotic, and ultimately satisfying final round in Masters history. When the dust settled, it was McIlroy slipping into the Green Jacket, marking the greatest day of his career.

The Masters is a tournament unlike any other, and Rory McIlroy has firmly established himself as a player unlike any other.