Rory Did It Again. And Somehow It Meant Even More

As a golfer of a certain age, Rory has always been my guy. No matter the outcome, he was the golfer I believed in. From the amazing early victories to the more recent heartbreaking defeats, I've been riding the rollercoaster since the beginning.

Few things encapsulate the downs like his close call in 2022 at the Open Championship at St. Andrews, when he lost to Cameron Smith, or the loss to Bryson at the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. But the ups have been even better, with few as exciting as his 2025 Masters victory to secure the career grand slam.

That's not to say I was always enjoying the experience, but I was always there.

To give you an idea of my fandom, after he won the 2025 Masters, I fully embraced my Rory devotion and bought that year's TaylorMade major staff bag along with his replica irons built to my specs (so I can actually hit them). They represent the only real pieces of sport memorabilia that I own, and I fully intend to use them.. I don't believe in wall hangers.

Heads up to my local golf shop: I'll be by later in the week to pick up the 2026 edition if it hasn't already sold!

But at the end of the day, these are just things—inanimate physical objects that represent the memories and feelings of a moment that we can't hold onto.

That's why when Rory took home his second Green Jacket, I was moved by the way he embraced his family and reflected on where he came from when asked about the people who stayed up to watch him at Holywood Golf Club in Northern Ireland.

Just thank you for all the support," McIlroy said. "I was a little kid with a dream, and the support that I have from my family, my friends, everyone back home, some people probably thought it was outlandish to dream the things that I wanted to do, but I had amazing support from back home, and can't thank them all enough for that continued support.

He later went on to once again thank his parents at the full Green Jacket Ceremony.

This is why we love sports, because no matter how hard we hope and cheer for success, victory is never guaranteed. And, when it does happen, even on the individual level, there is a collection of people that get to also share in that success. Sports give us people to cheer for, and, at times, people to cheer against.

In the case of Rory, both my wife and I have passed along our admiration for him to our oldest daughter, who now joins us in the ups and downs. When we had the chance to take her to see Rory in person for the first time in 2024, she was happy to wait patiently for 30 minutes just to get a clear view of the golfer whose driver headcover has inspired her own (as part of the Rory TaylorMade junior set).

After Rory won the Masters, I let my daughter take a day off from school a few months later so we could watch Rory during the Canadian Open pro-am, when he was experimenting with a new driver (it was a failed experiment). I was working, but it's hard to explain to a 7-year-old that most kids don't get to hang out on the range of a PGA TOUR event. Either way, she loved every minute of it.

It reminded me of the Sunday afternoon I spent with my dad at when Mike Weir faced VJ Singh in a playoff for the Canadian Open in 2024 at Glen Abbey. We followed feverishly along the back nine and ran back and forth during the playoff, and even though our Canadian hero lost the tournament, it was one I won't forget.

Nowadays, if we have golf on the TV (which it often is in our house), the question is always: "How's Rory doing?" Yesterday, when that final putt dropped, she was as excited as we were to watch the proceedings, and now more than ever has a better understanding of why events like this mean so much to the players and their family.

As Rory walked off the 18th green and hugged his daughter and then his parents, it became apparent that this win, like so many before it, was about enjoying the moment and cementing a place in history.

Of course, trophies and green jackets are a great reminder of the victories, but they can't replace the emotions felt in the moment, shared with the people you care about the most. It reminded me of what Rory said after he lost that U.S. Open in 2024,

I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.

The best part is, since then, he's won two more.

A part of the reason that resonates line with me even more is that golf, as in life, is about how you get past failures, and even the best lose way more than they ever win. That's another one of those lessons we try to instill in our kids, in that we never care about how you fail, as long as you feel like you tried your best and are ready to put in the work to do better next time.

No matter what happens from here, I'll never forget where I was and who I was with while watching Rory win The Masters for the second time. And, like Rory, I'm glad I was able to celebrate it with my family, too.