ball-knowers only
Masters 2025: I asked Rory McIlroy to identify the best shot he hit on Sunday. His answer was fascinating
AUGUSTA, Ga. — When the highlight package from Rory McIlroy’s final round of the 2025 Masters is replayed years from now, it will likely start with the preposterous shot through a tiny window in the trees left of the par-4 seventh fairway. Then will come the disastrous double bogey at No. 13, followed by the bounce-back birdie at No. 15 that featured a majestic 7-iron from 208 yards that drew to perfection. Next, the towering 8 iron he begged to “GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!” at the 17th. It most certainly went, pitching on the front edge and rolling out to two feet for a kick-in. And finally, the gap wedge from 125 yards on the first playoff hole, which spun back to three feet and set up the moment of a lifetime.
The most important shot McIlroy hit all day? That probably will be forgotten by everybody but himself.
On Sunday evening, as McIlroy was peppered with questions about all the ridiculous shots he hit to help him finally complete the career Grand Slam, I sat inside the Masters press building interview room and wondered what McIlroy thought was the best shot he had hit all day. I was thankfully called on and I used the word “best” in my question, instantly regretting it. “Important” was the operative term. We all knew about 7 and 15 and 17 and 18 (19, technically), but what about a shot that was lost in all the chaos? What about a shot that only real ball-knowers could appreciate?
McIlroy is the ultimate ball-knower, so it was no surprise that despite the fact I replaced “best” for “important,” he knew what I meant. His mind went all the way back to the third fairway, a moment seemingly years before the most bipolar second nine from a Masters winner in the tournament’s storied history.
“The best shot I hit today was...,” McIlroy paused to think. “It could be the second on 7, but I think the most—one of the most important ones for me was the second shot on 3.”
No. 3? The short par 4? The early-round handshake birdie hole that can keep a hot start going or revive a day that’s gotten off to an inauspicious start? We talking about the same hole, Rors?
Those who know, know that “Flowering Peach” is anything but a handshake birdie. In fact, it could be argued that it features the most terrifying approach and/or pitch or chip shot into any green on the entire property. At 350 yards, as the AP’s Doug Ferguson notes here, it is the exact same distance as it was when the first Masters was held in 1934. Even in the bomb-and-gouge era, it continues to confound the world’s best year after year, and the club has never had to move the earth or buy up any more property in order for it to do so. Course architect Alister MacKenzie considered it to be as fine as any hole at Augusta National.
After an opening double bogey on Sunday, followed by a disappointing par at the par-5 second, McIlroy, who led by two when he began the day, was suddenly one shot back of Bryson DeChambeau, who had birdied No. 2. It was the classic “oh, no, here we go again” moment that McIlroy has had a knack for producing in the majors the last decade. It was far too early to call the ball game over, but the mood on the grounds took such a dark turn that it might as well have been.
Then DeChambeau laid up with an iron off the tee like he had all week, while McIlroy opted to let the big dog eat. His drive traveled 333 yards and left him with a 24-yard pitch shot. Light work for a four-time major winner. But on No. 3 at Augusta, it is anything but. The depth of the third green is 29 yards, and the pin was in its classic Sunday location, 11 on and five from the left. But because it pinches in so hard in the back left portion, there’s not a ton of room behind, meaning McIlroy faced this needing to somehow land it short and trust that it would 1. still get on and 2. not roll off the back and leave him with an even more pressure-packed third shot during what was already a very shaky start.
I’m shaking just looking at it, and I didn’t double the first hole and throw away a two-shot lead at the Masters. Imagine how McIlroy must have been feeling?
Apparently, he was dialed in, pulling off the 11-out-of-10 on the difficulty scale pitch shot by hitting it into the hill and then getting it to roll on, roll out and finally come to rest nine feet from the cup:
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Even if McIlroy didn’t make the downhill left-to-right slider (he did), this still may have been the shot of the tournament. DeChambeau three-putted from just 23 feet for bogey, a shocking turn of events that allowed McIlroy to recapture the momentum with his eventual birdie conversion that sent shockwaves through the Georgia pines. Seriously, go have a watch of this moment on Masters.com. It may have been the loudest roar of the day. A better way to describe it might be the most “oh, it’s SO BACK ON” roar of the day.
Turns out, it was. McIlroy knew it, too.
“You know, I started 6, 5,” he said. “Hit a good tee shot on 3. That's not an easy second shot, bumping it up that hill. To judge that well and make a 3 there, when Bryson then made 5, and then to go ahead and birdie the next hole, as well, I thought that was—you know, it was very early in the round, but it was a huge moment.”
It was bigger than huge. It was enormous, the second of three two-shot swings over the first four holes. McIlroy was on the right side of two of them. And the rest is history.