Justin Rose’s Masters moment finally arrived on Sunday in 2025.
At the end of a sizzling final round, Rose holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole. With Rory McIlroy leaking oil behind him, the 44-year-old Rose knew he had to open up his birdie-like looks to shoot. removing the jacket from McIlroy’s shoulders and banning golf history.
Rose gave the goal a safe shot and sent the ball towards destiny. It turned left as it caught the ridge and rolled into the center of the bowl. Rose immediately took off his hat and gave it to the crowd before giving a fist pump to score his 66 on Sunday.
“It’s the kind of putt you dream about as a kid, and you have it and you open it,” Rose said. “It was a special feeling.”
Eight years after Sergio Garcia tracked down Rose and beat him in a playoff at the 2017 Masters, the Englishman’s long-awaited Augusta National the moment seemed to have finally arrived.
And then it quickly evaporated. BECAUSE this is not Justin Rose’s Masters story.
*****
For the 57 men who have worn a green jacket, Augusta National is a haven – a golf paradise that was the scene of their greatest triumph. For many others, however, it holds only pain and destruction. For them, Magnolia Lane raises only unanswered questions about why things haven’t lined up for them at the place where golf’s immortals are crowned.
Some have melted on Sunday, letting their jackets slip through their fingers. Others never solved Augusta National’s riddles.
But Justin Rose’s quest for the Masters has been unique. There was no major collapse. He apparently arrives every year with the test answers. Scroll through the Masters record books and Justin Rose’s name is everywhere.
He is tied with Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Tom Kite and Raymond Floyd for second most (3) in Masters history. Floyd won a Masters. Watson two. Others never crossed the line. Rose has led or tied for the lead at the Masters nine times after Rounds 1, 2 and 3. That ranks third all-time behind Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, who have a combined 10 green jackets. Among players who have played between 50 and 74 career rounds at Augusta National, Rose’s scoring average 71.76 ranks third behind Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama. Tiger Woods (71.30 in 100 rounds) and Phil Mickelson (71.44 in 120) are the only other players with a better scoring average among those with 75 or more rounds played. Jack Nicklaus had a scoring average of 71.98 in 163 (!) career rounds.
In the last 10 Masters, Rose is a combined 18 under par. She is ranked seventh behind Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and Hideki Matsuyama. Only Rose and Schauffele are winless in that span.
Augusta National hasn’t hit Justin Rose like Rory McIlroy did. It has not been the scene of a major collapse as it was for Greg Norman.
But, like Ernie Els, the time never was just right for Justin Rose. He seems to have always found solace among the azaleas, but fate never named him.
****
In 2017, Rose led Sergio Garcia by one stroke with two holes to play. He had a birdie putt at 18 that would have won him the jacket, but he missed and lost in a playoff.
“I would say that’s probably one of the ones that fell through,” Rose said in 2017. “It’s not always that easy. At the end of the day, you’re going to win majors and you’re going to lose majors, but you’ve got to be willing to lose them. You’ve got to put yourself out there. You’ve got to get to the top of the leaderboard, if you’re not going to have too much pressure, if you’re not going to have too much pressure. enjoy yourself, then you’re not ready to win these tournaments.”
Eight years later, Rose topped Sunday’s leaderboard at Augusta National and became the latest villain in McIlroy’s career Grand Slam history.
Starting the day seven shots back, Rose went into a heater on the back nine as McIlroy bled the shot limping home. When he rolled in a 20-footer for birdie on the 18th, he was left to watch as McIlroy struggled to putt it home.
When McIlroy bogeyed the 72nd hole, it meant that, for the second time in eight years, no golfer had beaten Justin Rose over 72 holes at the Masters. Justin Rose had once again done everything required to win a green jacket, but, once again, the golf gods asked more.
On the first playoff hole, Rose streaked his drive on the 18th and then hit an iron that nearly landed on the hole. The ball bounced behind the cup and landed on top of the ridge, but did not roll down toward the hole.
After McIlroy stuffed his approach to three feet, Rose needed another long birdie putt to keep his Masters dream alive. His putt slipped out of the hole and moments later, McIlroy crumpled to the ground in celebration as Rose watched from the back of the green.
“That hurts,” Rose said after losing to McIlroy before taking a long pause. “What are you going to do about it, aren’t you?”
Eight years passed for Justin Rose. He rose to the top of the golf world, saw his game decline and came back. His resurgence is golf’s greatest story. Eight years is a long time. But while much has changed for Justin Rose, his outlook on another Masters loss remains the same.
“What do you choose to stop at, you know what I mean?” Rose said after losing to McIlroy. “There’s no point in being too down about it and you look at all the good things that put me in this situation. You can’t get through a career without a little bit of pain. It’s not going to happen. If you’re willing to lift the majors, you’ve got to put yourself on the line. You’ve got to risk feeling this way to get back.”
The shadows are much longer for Justin Rose than they were in 2017. He knows it. He is now 45 years old and enjoying a prolonged revival, but he is well aware that this will not last – that his great future is at hand it might be the last chance you get.
“Obviously, later in your career, you’re never sure how many chances you’re going to have left, and when you get close, it’s like, ‘Ahh,'” Rose said at the 2025 Open. “Sometimes it hurts a little bit more because you know it’s not getting any easier.”
When McIlroy’s winning shot fell last April, Rose watched as anguish and anguish melted away from McIlroy as he remained — while what-if they hung around him. Rose’s name now stands alongside Ben Hogan’s as the only player to lose multiple Masters in a playoff. Hogan won the Masters twice.
The search for Rose is still ongoing.
“Having been in situations like this before and even more so this time, I could really feel what it would be like to win it and I felt like I was right there on the verge of winning it,” Rose said the following week.
“I just—I don’t know what the right word is, maybe I’m aching at the thought of what it might have been.”
For some, the torture of the Masters is finally over. For others, it’s their entire history at Augusta National. For Rose, the story should be one consecutive great game on Augusta’s hallowed fairways — a champion, perhaps multiple times.
“I really feel like this is a tournament that I can still win,” Rose said in 2017. “I’d like to win three or four green jackets, but one would be enough, you know. I just want to win here. So I have a lot more looks and it feels good that it’s happening.”
Rose still has time to change his Master’s fate, but he knows the sand in the hourglass is running out fast. He only has so many Masters chapters to write before his book closes.
“One day, I’m not going to compete like this in this tournament,” Rose said last year. “So you know, in the moment, the hard work is totally worth it. To get these little moments, they’re very special.”
He’s just looking for that one Masters moment that can heal the wounds of a career — the kind of moment that can only be found once a year as the sun sets on an April Sunday at Augusta.
;)
