Rory McIlroy Does It Again at Augusta and Becomes the 1st Masters Repeat Champion Since Tiger Woods

Rory McIlroy spent more than a decade trying to win his first Masters. Winning the second one took only a year.

McIlroy captured the 2026 Masters on Sunday at Augusta National, finishing at 12-under 276 and becoming the first golfer to win back-to-back green jackets since Tiger Woods did it in 2001 and 2002. The victory also made McIlroy only the fourth repeat champion in tournament history, joining Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus.

The final margin was one shot, but it did not exactly come wrapped in calm. McIlroy closed with a 1-under 71 and had to survive more late drama on the 18th hole, where he carried a two-shot lead before badly slicing his drive into the trees on the right. From pine straw, he hooked an 8-iron high over the trees into the left bunker, then punched out to 12 feet and two-putted for bogey. It was messy, but it was enough. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished one back at 11 under after a final-round 68.

For McIlroy, the bigger difference this time was the burden he was not carrying. Last year, he arrived trying to win the Masters for the first time and complete the career Grand Slam. This year, he came back as defending champion and said afterward, “I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the Grand Slam, and then this year I realized it’s just really difficult to win the Masters. I tried to convince myself it was both.”

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The win was McIlroy’s sixth major championship, tying him with Nick Faldo for the second-most by a European golfer. Only Harry Vardon, with seven, has more among Europeans. McIlroy also became only the fourth golfer in the past 40 years to hold at least a share of the lead after every round of the Masters.

And none of it came easy.

A day after opening the door with a third-round 73 that let several contenders back into the tournament, McIlroy looked shaky again early Sunday. He birdied the third, then three-putted the par-3 fourth for double bogey. A bogey on the sixth dropped him to 9 under and left him two shots behind Cameron Young.

McIlroy admitted afterward that he was checking scoreboards throughout the round because of the rough start. “I felt like I needed to, especially after the rough start,” he said. “I needed to know where I was in the tournament.”

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That start could have sent the whole thing sideways. Instead, McIlroy steadied himself with birdies on Nos. 7 and 8, then took over where Augusta usually decides who gets to wear the jacket and who gets to explain why they didn’t.

Amen Corner flipped the tournament.

McIlroy made par at 11 to stay in front, then hit a 9-iron on the par-3 12th that settled 7 feet from the hole. He made the birdie putt to move two clear. On the par-5 13th, he smashed a 350-yard drive down the right side, got home in two, and made another birdie to stretch the lead to three with five holes to play. Later, McIlroy pointed to those tee shots at 12 and 13 as the defining swings of the round.

Scheffler made a late charge with birdies at 15 and 16 after a clean, bogey-free closing weekend, becoming the first golfer since World War II to play the final two rounds of the Masters without a bogey. But his push came up one shot short, and the bigger issue for him was the ground he had already given away earlier in the week. He said afterward, “Overall I’m not going to hold too many regrets, but yeah, definitely a bit disappointed now. But like I said, I started the weekend 12 shots back and ended up only one shot back.”

Justin Rose also had another painful near-miss at Augusta. The 45-year-old closed the front nine with three straight birdies and briefly grabbed a two-shot lead at 12 under. But bogeys at 11 and 12 knocked him back, and a missed birdie chance at 15 kept him from fully regaining momentum. Rose wound up tied for third at 10 under alongside Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley and Cameron Young.

So now McIlroy has done something nobody had done at Augusta in nearly a quarter century. He won the Masters once to complete the long chase. Then he came back and won it again, proving that last year was not just relief or release or a one-time breakthrough. It was the start of a different chapter.

Sunday’s final round had the usual Augusta nerves, the mistakes, the leaderboard swings and one more ugly closing hole. But when it ended, McIlroy still had the green jacket again. And this time, there is no waiting a decade for the next one.

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