In the end, it was Rory McIlroy‘s day. Despite an admirable (yet underwhelming) effort by Bryson DeChambeau, the green jacket finally found the Northern Irish’s capable shoulders after a final round that can only be described as dramatic. Heading into Sunday, the tension was palpable. Saturday’s third round had seen the veteran snatch the lead from his LIV Golf counterpart following closely behind with just two shots back after three birdies in the final five holes. Ahead of Corey Conners and the rest of the field, DeChambeau was striving toward the Masters glory that has escaped them throughout his careers. But so was his rival. And, in the end, he did it—Rory McIlroy became just the sixth player in history to complete the career Grand Slam.
Through tears, he immediately found his wife Erica, in a long embrace. Fighting back tears, the 35-year-old then remarked, “I want to say hello back home to my mom and dad back home at Northern Ireland. I can’t wait to see them next week. I just can’t wait to celebrate this with them.” It was a heartfelt moment, that even brought the community together. Bitter rivals otherwise, even Tiger Woods & Phil Mickelson shared the same opinion about the Irishman as they congratulated him on X. NBA legends Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley were ecstatic about McIlroy finally getting the Green Jacket. Even his fourth-round rival, Bryson DeChambeau, was emotional seeing the now 29x PGA Tour winner triumph at Augusta National. “I wanted to cry for him,” DeChambeau said moments after watching McIlroy win. Yet, there was silent controversy lurking in the shadows.
The incident unfolded after a video surfaced of DeChambeau making a bold claim about his interactions with McIlroy on Masters Sunday. The Crushers GC captain was simply asked, “Did you speak to him in there? How’s he doing today?” In the video that Golf.com’s Claire Rogers shared, the golfer could be seen replying, “No Idea. Didn’t talk to me once all day.” Trying to dig deeper, the reporter asked, “Did you try to initiate a conversation with Rory at all?” The 31-year-old then bluntly stated, “He wouldn’t talk to me.” At first, Rogers came to McIlroy’s defense in the caption, before debunking the claim (which we’ll get to a bit later).
“After Tiger won in 2019, Finau joked that he realized it wasn’t gonna be a chatty day when he asked Tiger how his kids were and got a one-word answer: “good.” My humble opinion is that I think you’re allowed to focus on winning the Masters on Sunday,” she wrote defending the champ. It’s worth noting that neither Woods nor McIlroy had any reason behind keeping the conversations to the minimum. Perhaps both of them were just trying to focus on the task at hand, i.e. winning the Masters Tournament. Interestingly, Rogers also did some digging of her own and revealed DeChambeau’s supposed lies only moments later.
Before it all began on the day, Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy teed off together as the final pairing. Rogers replied to her original tweet commenting with a picture of the 2025 Masters champion with his hand on DeChambeau’s shoulder which clearly looked like they were having a conversation. Her caption read, “You could also hear them speaking to each other before teeing off and saying “have a great day today” lol.” This disproves the LIV Golfer’s claims that Rory McIlroy ignored him during the fourth round of the Masters Tournament.
Now, even if there was a snub, there can be two possible reasons behind it. For starters, DeChambeau’s association with LIV Golf, and McIlroy’s public disdain for it. In July last year, the recent victor had claimed, “If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire. That’s how I feel about it.” But then we’re forgetting the missing piece of the puzzle. Or in this case, the crucial part of the video that failed to make it to social media—the part where DeChambeau had continued his answer and said, “He was just like — just being focused, I guess. It’s not me, though.”
After Tiger won in 2019, Finau joked that he realized it wasn’t gonna be a chatty day when he asked Tiger how his kids were and got a one-word answer: “good.”
My humble opinion is that I think you’re allowed to focus on winning the Masters on Sunday
pic.twitter.com/mPamCSXeoB— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) April 14, 2025
The newest member of the Grand Slam Champions may have a lot to talk about after his win at Augusta National. Many have already covered how emotional, excited, and honored Rory McIlroy was as he finally won the Green Jacket after fighting for it for 11 years. But only a few may have talked about Bryson DeChambeau’s downfall in the final round. Out of the two, the American pro might be the one who wouldn’t want to talk to anyone after his abysmal performance. So let’s see how he performed over the last 18 holes at Augusta National.
Many reasons why Bryson DeChambeau wouldn’t want to talk to Rory McIlroy
At the end of the penultimate round, it was a battle between Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy. One representing the USA versus the other from Europe. The patrons saw this as a preview of Bethpage. Some also had a flashback from Pinehurst in 2024. There was a very large bunch that was confident McIlroy would choke again. But there were also many who remained loyal to the Irishman. However, what transpired over the last 18 holes was the polar opposite of what everyone expected.
McIlroy started off with a double bogey. The patrons were already disappointed. But in the next 17 holes, it was DeChambeau who faded into the shadow of his peers while the 2025 Green Jacket winner fought off every threat. Justin Rose rose to the occasion, and the Swede, Ludvig Åberg, also gave it his best swing. But in the end, the Gods, the Greens, and even the wind at Holly were in favor of Rory ‘Poster Boy’ McIlroy. In the end, there were four other golfers between McIlroy and DeChambeau, and the story ended in the most shocking and satisfying way possible. We can understand why the LIV Golf pro might not want to talk to anyone after that. Wouldn’t you?
