It was supposed to be just another fun celebrity moment at Augusta National-a rising basketball star chatting about golf. But Caitlin Clark’s appearance on Under The Umbrellas this past Saturday turned into something more. When asked who she thought would take home the green jacket, she didn’t hesitate.
“I think Rory’s going to do it,” she said with a calm confidence, seated near the 18th green. “It would be really cool… you could just tell everybody was cheering extra hard for him.”
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Twenty-four hours later, Rory McIlroy gave them something to cheer about.
In a Masters finish straight out of a storybook, McIlroy battled Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff after both finished at -11. On the 10th hole, with the weight of past Augusta heartbreaks hanging over him, McIlroy sank a 10-foot birdie to finally capture the one major that had eluded him.
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The victory makes McIlroy just the sixth golfer in history to complete the career Grand Slam, joining the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods (Golf Digest). It also marks his fifth major title-and arguably his most meaningful.
“This one means the most,”McIlroy said in a teary post-round interview with CBS’s Amanda Balionis.“I’ve waited a long time to feel this.”
Clark, who’s used to draining 30-footers in packed arenas, had her own moment of magic this weekend-just not on the court. Her prediction has since gone viral, drawing praise from both golf and basketball fans alike. She later told Outside the Lines she “just had a feeling.”
Call it intuition. Call it fate. Either way, Caitlin Clark and Rory McIlroy shared a moment-one in Augusta, one in Indiana-that will be hard to forget.