Masters TV coverage slammed for ruining Rory McIlroy final hole moment | Golf | Sport

Following McIlroy’s shot, the cameras switched to a wide angle of the 18th green, but the ball was nowhere to be seen. It left countless viewers at home furious as it was arguably the most dramatic moment of the entire tournament and one hugely significant to McIlroy’s pursuit of consecutive Masters titles. And it meant those spectators were completely in the dark as to where the leader’s odds stood so close to the last hurdle. One X user wrote: “Some tough camera work on this last hole, how do they manage to miss where both Rory’s and [Cam Young’s] shots finish?”

“72nd hole at The Masters and we have no clue where their shots went? Disgusting camera work,” added another. And a third asked: “Did the camera guys quit 71 holes into the Masters?”

Eventually, it emerged McIlroy’s shot had finished in the greenside bunker. From there, he played his third shot and positioned it near the pin, setting up a straightforward route to victory provided he could complete the job in two putts.

He managed this comfortably, securing his title and cementing his place in Masters history as the fourth golfer ever to claim back-to-back Green Jackets. Before McIlroy’s championship-winning putt, the cameras committed another error when their positioning prevented viewers from seeing the ball drop into the cup.

McIlroy stood between the camera and the ball, and due to the putt’s brevity, there was no opportunity for viewers to watch it travel into the hole. Instead of cutting to an alternative camera angle, viewers were shown the exact same position and were once more left infuriated by the mistake.

All told, it wasn’t the most straightforward final round for McIlroy, who at one point had one less fortunate moment picked up by TV cameras. For a second consecutive year, had to hold off some of the world’s finest players in his pursuit of back-to-back Green Jackets.

He began the final round level for the lead at 11-under alongside Young, with the likes of Scheffler, Justin Rose and Sam Burns closely behind. After recording pars on the opening two holes and a birdie on the third, McIlroy struck an atypical double bogey on the par-three 4th.

Two holes afterwards, he recorded another bogey to drop back to 10-under and slip two strokes behind then-leader Rose. From that point, the defending champion was virtually faultless en route to his second consecutive Masters triumph.

McIlroy, who was emotional in the wake of his win, went bogey-free across his next 11 holes, including four birdies, before his bogey on No. 18 proved immaterial given he arrived with a two-shot advantage over Scheffler.