McIlroy repeats at Augusta

Rory McIlroy won the 2026 Masters on Sunday, becoming the fourth player to win back-to-back green jackets at Augusta National. (masters.com) McIlroy finished at 12-under-par 276 and beat Scottie Scheffler by one shot after a final-round 71. Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley, Justin Rose and Cameron Young tied for third at 10 under. (masters.com) The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland had built a six-shot lead through 36 holes after a second-round 65, the largest lead in the field entering the weekend. He lost that margin during a shaky third round, then closed the tournament on Sunday. (masters.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The win came one year after McIlroy’s 2025 Masters title, the victory that completed the career Grand Slam. Masters records list him as the sixth player to win all four men’s majors and the second, after Gene Sarazen, to finish that set at Augusta. (masters.com) A second straight Masters title moved McIlroy into a smaller Augusta group. Masters coverage said only Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods had previously defended the championship before McIlroy joined them on April 12, 2026. (sports.yahoo.com) (masters.com) NBC Sports said the second green jacket sharpened the conversation around McIlroy’s standing in the game, with six major championships now on his record. The same outlet framed the result as a new phase of his career rather than the end of a chase that had centered on Augusta for more than a decade. (nbcsports.com) McIlroy used the Green Jacket Ceremony to answer one question left over from 2025. “I did want to come back here and prove last year wasn’t a fluke,” he said after the win. (masters.com) Afterward, Yahoo Sports reported that McIlroy’s message was not about closure. He said he “want[s] more,” a line that fit a season in which Augusta is no longer the tournament that defines what he has not done. (sports.yahoo.com) The finish also drew a larger television audience than recent Masters Sundays. Yahoo Sports, citing CBS, reported that the final round averaged 14 million viewers, the most-watched Masters final round since 2015. (sports.yahoo.com)