McIlroy’s long wait to complete a career Grand Slam could not have concluded in a more dramatic fashion.
Having let a four-shot lead slip at the 2011 Masters, history threatened to repeat itself in April.
He held a two-shot lead going into the final round this time, but memories of recent near-misses came flooding back when his advantage was wiped out on the first with a double bogey.
Three birdies in seven holes gave McIlroy a four-shot lead going into the back nine before he dropped four shots in as many holes from the 11th.
However, the drama was far from finished.
Having missed a putt in regulation to get his hands on the coveted green jacket, McIlroy was taken to a sudden-death play-off after his Ryder Cup team-mate Justin Rose birdied six of his final eight holes.
With the agony of past heartbreak flooding back, McIlroy held his nerve to birdie the first play-off hole and win his first Masters.
McIlroy let out a huge roar before collapsing to the ground and weeping tears of joy at the end of an extraordinary day of sporting theatre.
“A lot of pent-up emotion came out on the 18th green. A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it,” said McIlroy.
At the Ryder Cup, McIlroy contributed three-and-a-half points from five matches as Europe won on American soil for the first time in 13 years.
The 36-year-old bore the brunt of verbal abuse from a hostile crowd throughout the event at Bethpage Black in New York – and hit out at “unacceptable and abusive behaviour” after his wife Erica was hit by a drink thrown by an American fan.
Having won six times in his eight Ryder Cup appearances, the world number two is being tipped to captain the side in the future.
“I would love to be the European team captain at some point,” said McIlroy.
“But that will be when I’m not good enough to make the team, or I make way for the new generation to come along.”