McIlroy’s Masters win was as good as it gets. How about another Augusta fairytale?

April 11, 2026 — 3:00am

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When Rory McIlroy won the Masters last year, I wrote with some enthusiasm that it was about as good as sport gets. For what more do you want than a hugely likeable bloke who had won everything else bar the Masters finally fulfilling his dream and putting on the green jacket, just when it looked like it might be drifting away?

Well, you could have some drama on the final day, I guess?

For, as you’ll recall, while we all held our breath, McIlroy had a final round of trading vicious death blows with ... himself. Time and again he put the ball so awry it really looked like he was choking in a manner reminiscent of Greg Norman’s catastrophic collapse of three decades ago.

More pertinently it also risked being a replica of his own collapse at the US Open at North Carolina the previous June, when he’d missed two three-foot putts in his last three holes to relinquish what appeared to be a certain victory.

Time and again, however, on that final day of last year’s Masters, McIlroy managed recovery shots that were simply stunning in their skill, while also countering his three bogies – oh NO! – with six birdies – oh YES!!!! – until finally, he won the whole thing. Bottom line? Great bloke, and a credit to his country, gets the bickies, just when it seemed all was lost.

What could match that for sporting pleasure this year? Not Rory, again, as fine as he is playing. Let’s go for instead our own Jason Day, finally bringing home another Masters for Australia, to match the one by Adam Scott in 2013.

You’ll recall back then how one of the major threats to Scott winning was Day, and yet when Scott nailed the final putt, the first man to warmly congratulate him was Day himself, despite what must have been his desperate disappointment at finishing third. For Day, that was part of a slew of second and third place finishes in majors, where he’s been so close, but still so far.

But through it all, he never stopped smiling, never stopped trying his best, never stopped believing that one day it would happen for him, too. He was Australian sport at its very best. Hugely competitive, but no gnarl, no snarl, no swagger, no dagger. Just a great bloke doing his best.

In 2015, it all came together for him in stunning fashion when he won his only major at the US PGA Championship on the Whistling Straits course in Wisconsin with a breathtaking final score of 20 under. The nation rejoiced and loved him even more, focusing........

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