What I Learned from Rory at The 2025 Masters - Henry Shimp
Anyone who has followed our content for any amount of time at The Tie Podcast knows that I have long been a very big Rory McIlroy fan. Certainly, some of this has to do with how amazing it is to watch someone as gifted as he is play golf, but even more so due to his incredible personality and respect for the game we all love—and the past, present, and future health of it.
I won’t name any names, but there are certain golfers (and athletes more broadly) that I love to watch compete and root hard for, but I wouldn’t say my respect for them transcends fandom. With Rory, it’s the opposite. And I think this is the general consensus on the guy.
I probably didn’t even realize how big of a fan I was until some of the recent major heartbreaks: the 2022 Open, and the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Opens. I genuinely was in a bad way while watching—and certainly after—the dejecting conclusion to each of those events. They each made me realize that when you like an athlete for their talent, that’s great, and you can derive joy from their successes. But it also makes it easier to sweep away their failures. When genuine respect for the individual comes into play, it makes the failures sting that much more. And the question for me has long remained: Will the successes be met with equivalent joy?
I’m not going to try, in this piece, to capture what Rory’s Masters win—and career Grand Slam in the process—means for golf. That’s too hard, and it’s already been done by thousands of writers who actually know how to write. Instead, I’m simply going to break down what it means to me, and what I take away from Rory’s path that we can all carry into our own lives.
While it was an 11-year major drought for Rory, the part of it that felt truly desolate for me was the last four or so years. The 150th Open at St. Andrews, LACC, and Pinehurst were gut punches that seemed like they were coming from a higher power—the way Rory kept getting ousted by lesser contenders. Sure, he had his own shortcomings in each of those events, but he played well enough each time to get it done, and somehow the golf gods disagreed.
It’s also important to consider the other things going on with Rory and the person he has become in the last 11 years. He has been more accessible to fans and media than he needs to be, especially considering his stature. He’s become a worldly, thoughtful, introspective individual who clearly values the game, its traditions, and its legacy. He’s become an aspirational father and a role model for younger golfers and athletes. If there’s anyone who feels like they’ve “deserved one,” it’s Rory.
Sadly, the words “deserved” and “sports” don’t know each other. Rory has served as a sharp reminder of this. He put himself in position more than enough times, but it just didn’t happen. And the real narrative builder for me was less about the golf and more about the character—someone who continued to let us into his disappointments, showing up on the world stage in a vulnerable way, again and again, and failing to capture the goal he’s chased for so long.
While Rory had more top finishes than anyone in majors in recent years, it wasn’t purely the résumé—or the length of the drought—that built this story. It was that he humanized himself. He let fans in. He showed that, despite his immense skill, he faces the same doubts and emotional hurdles as the rest of us. Whether it’s a salesman closing a deal, someone landing a client, or any other high-stakes moment, we all know what it’s like to fumble at the goal line. Rory has been willing to bring us along for that ride. And what makes it so unique is that he has talent that transcends even world-class skill.
There is no greater measure of how you actually feel about a player than what the experience is like watching them try to get it over the line in a big event. We all know the feeling—whether it’s NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA Football or Basketball, or your favorite golfer—there’s a massive difference between passively watching and truly sweating the outcome.
Watching Sunday’s action at the 2022 Open, 2023 and 2024 U.S. Opens, and this year’s Masters was tortuous for me. I truly realized the depth of my fandom after the horrific ending to the 2024 U.S. Open, when Rory famously missed two short putts late to lose by one to Bryson. I felt sick. Depressed. Dejected. I didn’t want to do anything but stare at a wall for hours afterward.
It all goes back to how deeply I respect Rory—as most fans do. Watching such a high-quality, talented individual chase something so openly, so desperately, and come up short, is brutal. The only thing I could have hoped for in this multi-year journey as a firm member of Team Rory was that the highs would be equal and opposite to the lows. And I can happily report: the high of seeing Rory finally get it done at Augusta was perhaps even better than the lows were bad.
In periods of negativity, it’s easy to let things roll off your back. For example, after the 2024 U.S. Open, I moved on within a day. I had no interest in rewatching highlights or reliving the pain. But in the opposite scenario, the opposite is also true. I’m still reliving that final day at Augusta in different ways, and that probably won’t change for a while. Especially when something takes that long to happen, you want to sit in it for a bit. Appreciate the journey. Were the last few years on Team Rory fun? No. But have they made the triumph sweeter? Absolutely.
I’ve long believed in karma, and I think Rory’s Masters win proves that staying on its good side pays off. While he would have taken any major over the last 11 years, The Masters was the one he wanted most—the final piece of his Grand Slam puzzle. Lo and behold, after all the madness, he finally got it. I believe that happened because of two things. One: the person Rory has become—a custodian of the game and a joy to follow. Two: the phrase “shoot for the stars, land among the clouds” applies to Rory... except I’d add, “and eventually, find the stars too.”
It would’ve been easy for Rory to take stock of his life and decide he already had it all. That the continued heartbreak wasn’t worth it. He could’ve pulled back. But instead, with every heartbreak, he seems to have doubled down. He’s now accomplished just about everything in golf... and now, finally, the major has landed. And not just any major—The Masters.
As he said to his young daughter, Poppy, in his champion’s speech: “Don’t give up on your dreams. Just keep working for the things you want, and eventually you can achieve them.”
What a ride. What a day of triumph. Thank you, Rory, for the joys—and the lessons—learned about golf and life from the 2025 Masters. The final leg of his career Grand Slam.
