Justin Rose

Justin Rose has known Rory McIlroy.

The 44-year-old Briton returned to the clock this weekend at Augusta National, with his Sunday blistering charging the 2025 Masters rankings, putting him somewhere between McIlroy, green jacket and professional grand slams. Rose started the seventh day with McIlroy’s lead, but the combination of the Northern Irish nervous stumbles and six back nine birdies made Rose and McIlroy go to the playoffs and die suddenly.

Both players stood out on the first playoff hole (18th place), with Ross hitting his approach shot 15 feet. McIlroy stuffed four feet and put pressure on another mid-sized putt. Rose’s putter rolled towards the hole, looking good, but ended up missing the low and crossing the hole.

That stage was left to McIlroy, who tried to throw the four-foot bird into the Cup and eventually became the Masters champion. McIlroy threw the putt into the air and bent his knees as emotions drowned him. McIlroy stood up and he hugged Rose, and now the two sudden deaths of the Masters Britons sent a message to his friends.

Ross told CBS’s Amanda Balionis after his failure. “I just said it was so cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously, I want to be the bad guy today, but it’s still a big moment in golf.”

Ross hissed the 2025 Master with a 7-shot below 7 hit. He maintained the lead on 36 holes and then went back to Saturday.

But Ross cleared the tanks and tried to catch up with McIlroy on Sunday. He made 10 birdies and 4 bogeys, shot 66 times and pushed McIlroy to the edge. This included a 20-foot putter for the birdie in the 72nd hole to post under 11 and putting pressure on McIlroy.

Rose leaves Augusta National to see his next big win coming soon after the 2024 Open Championship and the runner-up of the Masters this week.

“But listen, it’s obvious that to pour putts into 18 at 18, it’s obviously giving myself a chance, and the chance is an incredible feeling,” Ross said. “Obviously, I was in this position before in 2017. It’s definitely hard, but I’ve rebounded since then. After that, I continued to be number one in the world, so I used it to play to my strengths.”

“I played the last two majors and I’m already ranked second, but that’s exactly what I’ve been in this stage of my career and that’s more evidence that I’m doing some really great work.”

Rose sees McIlroy fighting in a long, major championship drought for over a decade. He knows McIlroy’s place in game history and knows that Master Champion Rory McIlroy is a champion with talent of all time. For twenty years, Ross has been one of the great ambassadors of golf. The journey he has gone through over the past five years – from losing the game to rejecting Liv Golf and choosing to rediscover his old form – is an admirable “dig out of the dirt” attitude.

Justin Rose will be a worthy champion in the 2025 Masters. Instead, he is a bridesmaid again.

But while Ross wanted to play a spoiler on Rory on Sunday, their hugs and his words came a lot about McIlroy’s journey and achievements, while also on the man who had another inning in Augusta National.