MASTERS '26: Rory McIlroy sheds burden of winning green jacket. Now it falls to others
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rory McIlroy had the green jacket on his shoulders and an enormous weight off his back when he looked ahead to the 90th edition of the Masters with a question and a coy smile. “What are we going to talk about next year?
” he said. Next year has arrived. The Masters begins on Thursday, April 9, and McIlroy will be spared the questions that dogged him for nearly 15 years whether he could ever conquer Augusta National.
Now that burden falls to those who have felt they had one arm in the coveted jacket, a list that includes Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka. To understand how badly they and everyone else wants to be a Masters champion is to see McIlroy drop to his knees on the 18th green when he rolled in that 3-foot birdie putt on the first playoff to beat Rose, chest heaving with emotion, an exhale nearly as strong as the wind. There was as much joy as relief.
Augusta National enthralls and torments, all part of the drama that unfolds over four days on a stage that delivers some of the finest theater in golf. “Augusta checks off that mental box because of history, knowing the holes coming and knowing what guys have done,” Schauffele said. Schauffele speaks from experience.
The two-time major champion has had two close calls at the Masters — a runner-up to Tiger Woods in 2019, and the last man to challenge Hideki Matsuyama in 2021 until an 8-iron he thought was perfect found water left of the par-3 16th. The Masters won't include five-time champion Woods for the second year in a row. He was involved in another car crash on March 27.
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