AUGUSTA, Ga. — He was the player who looked the most like he wanted to win, like he had the game and the will to win, and even like the player who should win. History be damned.
Justin Rose played arguably the round of his life Sunday in the 2025 Masters, though later he couldn’t quite convince himself of that. He couldn’t go there because his inspired play didn’t take him where he ultimately wanted to go. Instead, after his loss to Rory McIlroy on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff, it left him on the doorstep of his dreams, a place with which he has become familiar, especially in this tournament and at this storied course.
He could take pride in what he did on a sun-splashed afternoon at Augusta National Golf Club. He could even take a measure of satisfaction. But heaped on top of those emotions was an abundance of disappointment. It comes with the territory into which he ventured when he pushed the World No. 2 player to the limit with a relentless pursuit that nearly snatched the green jacket and the career Grand Slam from his talented fellow European.
Summoning the nerves of a younger man and the soul of a thief, Rose threw 10 birdies up on the board in a closing six-under 66 to erase a seven-stroke deficit to McIlroy, a man on a mission and with much more ammunition. But although he pushed his friend from Northern Ireland to extra holes after they tied at 11-under 277, the primary things Rose earned at day’s end were more respect and more anguish.
“Yeah, it hurts. What do you choose to dwell on, you know what I mean? There’s no point in being too despondent about it,” Rose said bravely after finishing runner-up in the Masters for the third time in 11 years—and the second time via playoff, joining Ben Hogan, who came up short in 1942 and 1954. “Look at all the good stuff that got me into this situation. You can’t skip through a career without a little bit of heartache. It’s not going to happen. If you’re willing to lift the big championships, you’ve to put yourself on the line. You have to risk feeling this way to get the reverse.”
The 44-year-old Englishman, who with an opening 65 on Thursday passed Jack Nicklaus for the most first-round leads (five) in Masters history, quickly pointed out that he rose to No. 1 in the world following his 2017 playoff loss to Sergio Garcia. True, but it’s not out of bounds to wonder how many more chances he will have to add to his lone major title, the 2013 U.S. Open. This setback follows on the heels of a runner-up finish last July to Xander Schauffele in the Open Championship at Royal Troon.
“It doesn’t get any easier for sure. I think as you go through your career, you kind of think, ‘Oh, well, hopefully experience kicks in and certain things become easier,” he said. “I feel like I’m having to be more disciplined and make more sacrifices now than I ever have. The reason I’m willing to put in that work is for these occasions, these moments. Standing ovation on 18 when I finished, I took a moment, not knowing the result, but just soaking that in. That was obviously a nice moment because it was still what might be, what could be, but … you’re living the dream. One day, I won’t be competing this way at this tournament. So you know, for now, the hard work is totally worth it, to get these little moments, they are very special.”
He deserved that moment at 18 after capping his stunning rally with a 20-foot birdie putt that gave him hope. He had begun the final round seven strokes behind McIlroy after a third-round 75 that left him admittedly “so angry.” He trailed by six as he was playing the 10th hole and then caught the proverbial lightning in a bottle. Or maybe a thimble. That’s how surprising it seemed.
Rose birdied five of the next six holes, capped by an 8-iron to five feet and a pure putt at the par-3 16th hole that tied McIlroy at 11 under. He briefly led outright when McIlroy followed a double bogey at 13 with a messy bogey at 14.
“Something happened, for sure, around the middle of round. I just kind of went into the place that you dream about going to,” Rose said with relish, pausing to retain that feeling as he spoke. “I felt so good with my game. Felt so good with my mind. I began to sense that I was playing my way into the tournament. I was laser focused out there.”
He would later lament bogeys at 14 and 17 after pulled drives, but no one plays perfect golf. Rose played with passion and precision and a constant display of fist-pumps. On each of the two par-5 holes on the inward nine, he actually came within inches of making eagle.
How close he did come to making his own history for the greatest Masters comeback.
“I saw a man that was bold—very, very bold today,” said 2004 Masters champion Zach Johnson, who played alongside Rose. “I mean, he made 10 birdies, and he didn’t know about the 10 birdies until we were signing our scorecard. I didn’t either. You’re just writing numbers down, right? I don’t know how many guys have made 10 birdies in 18 holes here, but I’m going to assume it’s not many. Really, really, really impressive. It was really, a couple [bad] tee shots on the back, [but] other than that, man, he’s shooting zero. It was impressive. What you witnessed on 18 is storybook, absolute storybook.”
It was storybook except for the ending. But even then, when McIlroy brushed in his three-foot birdie on the 18th hole for the victory after Rose saw his birdie try from 15 feet drift right of the hole, Rose knew he had contributed to something special in the annals of golf, even as a footnote.
They shared a warm hug when it was over, Rose almost acting as the older brother as he embraced the teary-eyed champion. “I just said to him, ‘Listen, this is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it, someone who achieves the career Grand Slam?’ It was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously, I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”
And Rose contributed to it with his own brand of talent, transforming the occasion into something memorable. He wouldn’t let McIlroy take a perfunctory walk among the loblollies and the loud roars. He pushed a great player to the limit, and that takes a special kind of guts when practically all of the known sports world would not quite embrace your accomplishment should you succeed.
“Today I hit a lot of quality shots under pressure, and I felt like I was getting stronger and stronger and stronger as the round was going on,” Rose said with the stiffest of upper lips. “I felt so good with my game, good with my emotions, and I’m super proud of that. Because you can’t prepare for that. You can’t practice for that. That’s when you learn about yourself, and I’m still learning about myself. But at Royal Troon and again here at the Masters, when it gets to the real business end, I feel like I’m really, really calm and ready for it. But, yeah, it’s disappointing. I think to lose in a playoff for the second time kind of punctuates both of them and makes you realize just how close you’ve been.”
He insisted that he departs Augusta National with no regrets. You wanted to believe him, but you just knew there was one very big one.
