McIlroy Wins Back-to-Back Masters

With six holes left on Sunday afternoon, Rory McIlroy was two shots behind Scottie Scheffler and fading. Then he birdied the 8th. And the 9th. And the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th in succession — a run of six consecutive birdies at Augusta National that left the world number one in his wake and gave McIlroy a lead he would not surrender.

McIlroy finished the 2026 Masters Tournament at 12-under par, winning by one shot over Scheffler with a final-round 71. The victory made him the first back-to-back Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002, and lifted his career major count to six — matching Sir Nick Faldo's record among European players. The total prize pool was $22.5 million; McIlroy's winner's share was $4.05 million.

The week had begun in historic territory. McIlroy set a new 36-hole Augusta record with rounds of 65 and 63, opening a six-stroke lead over the field at the halfway point — the largest 54-hole advantage in Masters history. Third-round Saturday unravelled it entirely. A McIlroy 74 — his worst round at Augusta in a decade — allowed Scheffler, who had trailed by five shots entering Saturday, to pull within one heading into the final pairing.

“Third-round Saturday unravelled it entirely.”

Sunday's opening nine holes were quiet. Scheffler birdied the 5th and 6th to move two clear. The tournament changed on the 8th tee, where McIlroy struck a 9-iron to four feet and converted. He did not stop. Six straight birdies — eight through thirteen — is the most sustained scoring run in a Sunday Masters final pairing since Phil Mickelson's 2004 charge. The back nine at Augusta in April is not a venue that rewards recklessness; McIlroy played it at six-under over the final 10 holes.

Scheffler responded with birdies at 14 and 15 to close within one, but McIlroy held his nerve across the final three holes under a 15 mph wind off Amen Corner that had ended several earlier challenges. Justin Rose, Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, and Russell Henley finished in a group at 10-under, two shots back. "He's playing at a level I haven't seen from anyone this year," Rose said of McIlroy at the scoring tent. Scheffler was gracious: "I thought a 68 would win most weeks here. It nearly did."

The criticism of McIlroy's week centres squarely on the Saturday collapse. A six-shot lead entering the third round represented the most cushion any player has held at the Masters in the par-4 era; surrendering it raised, again, questions about whether something in McIlroy's competitive wiring frays under the specific pressure of Augusta's final stretch — the same questions raised by his 2011 collapse and his 2022 US Open near-miss. That he answered those questions Sunday with one of the great back-nine charges in tournament history does not erase the pattern. It complicates it in ways that will take years to resolve.

Six majors ties Faldo. The names that follow on the all-time list are Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (15), Ben Hogan (9), and Gary Player (9). McIlroy turned 37 in May; most of the era's comparable players — Scheffler at 29, Cameron Young at 27 — are still ascending. The historical comparison that flatters McIlroy most at this stage is Seve Ballesteros, who won his fifth major at 37. Whether McIlroy's late-career peak extends to a seventh is the question the sport will spend the next several years answering.

As McIlroy pulled his ball from the 18th cup, he turned to look at the scoreboard, then at his caddie Harry Diamond, and said nothing. They had worked together long enough that nothing needed to be said.