Yeah, it hurts' Rose's grace enhanced magic Masters moment

There was one very happy man at Augusta yesterday, and there were 52 all in a stew, turning over thoughts of what went right and what went wrong, that short putt on the 6th, that wayward chip on 12, that sliced drive on 15, or whatever it was that cost them their shot at winning the 2025 Masters.

- Andy Bull

While Rory McIlroy can enjoy what was, everyone else in the field is wondering what might have been. Justin Rose will feel it most. Rose, the antagonist in Rory's story, scored 65, 71, 75, 66 - the last of them, he said, "a bogey away from being the greatest round I've ever played".

The second shots in the playoff summed it up. Rose's was pretty near perfect in the circumstances and landed 15 feet from the pin. McIlroy's landed just beyond it, caught the slope, rolled back down and around, past Rose's ball and finished up 5ft from the cup. Sometimes good just isn't good enough. "Yeah, it hurts," Rose said. "What are you going to do about it, though?"

He was the first to hug McIlroy after he had made the winning putt. "Listen," he told him, "I was glad I was here on this green to witness you win the career grand slam."