How ANWA 2025 helped Rory McIlroy achieve his Masters dreams

Rory McIlroy tried everything imaginable to prepare himself to win the Masters. He arrived early and late. Played many practice rounds and none. He played the Par 3 contest and didn’t. He even tried hypnosis.

The results never materialized.

Last year, before his magical victory at Augusta National, Rory McIlroy followed the final round of Augusta Women’s National Amateur. He wasn’t necessarily looking at it as a tool to help him finally win the green jacket, but it ended up paying dividends a week later as he battled Justin Rose as the sun set on the 2025 Masters.

McIlroy’s final round in 2025 began as a duel with Bryson DeChambeau, but there was a battle with his demons on the back nine. McIlroy held a five-shot lead at one point, but a bogey double on the par-5 13th put the chase back on the stage, with Rose becoming his main competitor after the Englishman finished with a final-round 66 with a 20-foot birdie at the 18th. When McIlroy bogeyed the last hole, he set up a playoff with Rose.

The two players split the fairway on the first playoff hole. Rose then hit an iron that nearly landed in the hole. The ball bounced past the cup and came to rest on top of the ridge running through the 18th green. McIlroy responded by pushing his approach to four feet. When he arrived on the green, McIlroy looked down at his ball and found something familiar: He had already seen this putt the week before when he won the ANWA Carla Bernat Escuder polished off her winning moment at Augusta National.

McIlroy detailed this moment in the latest release Every Hole 2025 Masters Video which Augusta National was released on Friday.

“So even before Justin hit his tee shot, I hit my tee shot and watched a lot of the last round of the ANWA,” McIlroy said. “You know, the Spanish girl that ended up winning, she had a very similar putt to win. I remember watching her and she didn’t do much. If anything, she might have moved a touch to the right. So it felt like I’d seen that putt before. After Justin’s putt didn’t go in, all you can do is try to stay in that moment as much as you can, and I I put my ball as far as I can. It’s inside left and makes a good shot.”

Bernat Escuder reached the 18th hole at Augusta National with a one-shot lead over Asterisk Talley. Bernat Escuder started the day one shot behind Lottie Woad and Kiara Romero, but quickly grabbed the lead and held a four-shot lead on the back nine at one point. But that lead was cut to one by the then 16-year-old Talley when Bernat Escuder made her second bogey of the day on the par-4 17th. She needed a par on the 18th hole to avoid a playoff, as McIlroy would do a week later.

Bernat Escuder hit a huge drive to 18 and then left himself a four-foot, downhill putt to come home at 12-under and win the trophy. She calmly slotted it in to become the fifth Spaniard to win at Augusta National, joining Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm.

“It’s hard to put into words, but I was so happy and relieved that I made the shot put because I saw on a board that there was a girl who was just one shot behind me,” Bernat Escuder said after her shot put victory at 18. “So I was like, you have to do it. So, yeah, happy.”

Seven days later, McIlroy arrived tied for 18th needing a par to avoid a playoff with Rose. But his approach shot landed in the bunker and he missed the first putt to delay his milestone.

But after two immaculate swings in the playoff, McIlroy was left with just a four-foot putt to beat Rose and overcome his Augusta National demons. He had watched Bernat Escuder sink a similar shot to his heart the week before and lined up his winning putt, sure he knew the line of his dreams.

“I think you dream about these things,” McIlroy said in the new Masters video. “You never know how it’s going to hit you or how you’re going to feel. I feel very lucky. Not many people get to experience that in their lifetime.”