AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rory McIlroy turned another major collapse into his grandest moment of all, hitting a wedge into 3 feet for birdie in a sudden-death playoff Sunday to finally win the Masters and take his place in golf history as the sixth player to claim the career Grand Slam.

What should have been a coronation for McIlroy along the back nine at Augusta National turned into a heart-racing, lead-changing jaw-dropping finish at golf’s greatest theater that ended with McIlroy on his knees sobbing with joy and disbelief.

“I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” McIlroy said in Butler Cabin before Scottie Scheffler helped him into the green jacket.

It ended with more heartache for Justin Rose, who lost to Sergio Garcia in a playoff in 2017 and forced this one with a clutch 20-foot birdie on the 18th hole for a 6-under 66. He wound up joining Ben Hogan as the only players to lose twice in playoffs at Augusta National.

McIlroy lost a two-shot lead in two holes at the start. He lost a four-shot lead on the back nine in a matter of three holes with shocking misses, one of them a wedge into the tributary of Rae’s Creek on the par-5 13th.

And right when it looked as though he would blow another major, McIlroy delivered two majestic shots when nothing less would do, two birdies that sent him to the 18th hole with a one-shot lead. That still wasn’t enough. He missed a 5-foot par putt for a 1-over 73 and the first Masters playoff in eight years.

McIlroy’s wedge bounced onto the slope of the top shelf with enough spin to trickle down to 3 feet. And when Rose missed from 15 feet, McIlroy finally sealed it.

McIlroy went 11 long years without a major, knowing the Masters green jacket was all that kept him from joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the only winners of golf’s four professional majors.

He raised both arms and let the putter fall behind him, and before long he was on his knees, then his forehead on the 18th green as his chest heaved with emotion.

So ended one of the wildest Sundays at a major that is known for them. U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who beat McIlroy at Pinehurst No. 2 last June, had the lead after two holes when McIlroy opened with a double bogey.

He crashed out with a pair of three-putts and two shots into the water on the back nine, closing with a 75.

Ludvig Aberg, a runner-up in his Masters debut a year ago, suddenly had a share of the lead when McIlroy fell apart on the middle of the back nine. He missed a birdie putt from the fringe to take the lead, then finished bogey-triple bogey.

Rose had every reason to believe he threw away his chances on Saturday with a 75 that put him seven shots behind, and then two bogeys on the front nine. Even as he steadied himself, he was four shots back and running out of time. He did his part in a 10-birdie round and that dynamic birdie putt to cap it off.

McIlroy helped in a big way.

Nothing was more shocking than the 13th. McIlroy played it safe, leaving himself a big target and a lob wedge. He missed his mark by some 20 yards, the ball disappearing into the tributary of Rae’s Creek and leading to double bogey.

Then came a tee shot into the pine straw that led to another bogey, and the lead was gone again. But he was resilient as ever — he’s been like that his entire career. Seemingly in trouble left of the 15th fairway, McIlroy hit 7-iron around the trees and onto the green to 6 feet.

He missed the eagle putt — the birdie still helped him regain a share of the lead. Two holes later, facing a semi-blind shot, he drilled 8-iron and chased after it, urging it to “Go! Go! Go! Go!” And it did, barely clearing the bunker and rolling out to 2 feet for birdie and a one-shot lead.

Turns out that wasn’t enough either. He hit into a bunker from the fairway. He missed the 5-foot putt for the win. There was more work to do. But the 35-year-old from Northern Ireland never wavered in what he came to Augusta National to do.

He leaves with a green jacket.

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Just a month ago, Anthony Edwards said Timberwolves players “all thought” they were play-in bound.

“We just knew it was gonna happen,” he said.

It sure felt like it at the time. Back-to-back losses at the end of February to the Lakers and Utah left the Wolves just three game above .500. That’s a play-in team in the Western Conference.

But Minnesota managed to flip the script over the final six weeks of the campaign, winning 17 of its final 21 games — the most recent of which came as a 116-105 win Sunday at home over Utah — to sneak into the top six.

The Wolves are the No. 6 seed and will face the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. The series will start next weekend in Los Angeles, with the exact date and time of Game 1 still to be announced.

“I told the guys, (I was) super proud of their body of work this year,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We didn’t make a big trade in the middle of the season to sort things out. We didn’t fire coaches to try to sort things out. They sorted it out themselves. Those guys made the right adjustments and sacrifices, and they figured out who they needed to be as a team. We’ve still got a lot in front of us, but all credit to those guys because it mattered to them to figure out, and we did, and they did.”

The Wolves did so over the weekend, handling downtrodden Brooklyn and Utah.

The Jazz were far more competitive. Minnesota’s lead was just one at the break on Sunday. But Edwards exploded for 18 of his 43 points in the third frame to give Minnesota ample breathing room and effectively punch the team’s fourth consecutive ticket to the playoffs.

Edwards hit seven 3s in the win, giving him the NBA 3-point title this season. The guard hit 320 triples this season, one more than Pistons guard Malik Beasley. Edwards said he was “super excited” about the league-leading mark.

“A little reminiscent of the other day in Memphis,” Finch said of the third frame. “I kind of felt going in we needed to clean up some game-plan stuff. I thought we were a little loose on some game-plan stuff and made some adjustments, and guys did a good job of carrying that out to the floor. We were able to get out and run. We had some transition stuff coming out of our defense at the right time. We needed that.”

Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo admitted some players even felt the Wolves were destined for the play-in tournament after they blew a 24-point fourth quarter lead in Milwaukee on Thursday. But a door was re-opened when Golden State was upset by San Antonio on Wednesday.

“We were fortunate enough to have other teams lose, as well,” DiVincenzo said. “We just knew we had to handle business, and that was our focus.”

It was fitting even that Minnesota’s final week featured a little adversity. It wouldn’t be the Wolves if there wasn’t a bump in the road. But they managed to navigate that one, as well, to conclude a rocky season on a high that can carry them into the playoffs.

“Just overcoming adversity, keep our belief in ourselves and in one another. Trusting the process,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “We knew that when I got here it was a process. It was a lot of adversity and we learned how to overcome that and get better from that. This time, after the (preseason) trade, I think our team became a little bit different. We had to all, individually and collectively, learn how to adjust to one another and get better. We went through some adversity, but we stayed with it. I think everything that we went through as a team just got us closer together and got us, mentally, more resilient.”

Now they’ll head into a Lakers series in which they’ll be an underdog as they try to topple two of the league’s elite talents, but armed with the knowledge that they aren’t likely to crumble under the weight of any presented challenge.

“I think this locker room is really connected, from the youngest to the oldest guy on the team, everybody is communicating with each other, and everybody can hold each other accountable,” Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “I think that’s huge. We’re going to need it going forward, because everything only gets harder.”

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BRAINERD, Minn. — Republicans in north-central Minnesota will vote Tuesday to determine a nominee for a vacant state Senate seat in a race that will also showcase how allegiance to President Donald Trump is playing in areas he dominated in 2024.

Eight Republicans are vying to replace Justin Eichorn, who resigned last month after he was charged with attempting to solicit a minor in what turned out to be a sting operation in Bloomington.

The pool of candidates includes some familiar names in state politics, including several who made an abrupt decision to shift from other careers to pursue an unexpected political opportunity.

District 6, which stretches from Brainerd and Baxter north to Grand Rapids, is largely Republican. Eichorn won in 2022 with nearly 64% of the vote. So there’s a good chance the candidate who wins the Republican primary will go on to claim the Senate seat.

Trump handily carried the district in his 2024 presidential run.

But Crow Wing County GOP Chair Lowell Smith isn’t taking anything for granted. Historically — and this year in particular — Republicans across the country haven’t done as well as Democrats in turning out core voters in special elections.

“We’re going to do everything we can to turn out the vote,” Smith said.

But Democrats think they’ve got an outside shot. They’ve endorsed Denise Slipy, an environmental health and safety professional from Breezy Point. Other Democrats have bowed out.

Slipy will face the Republican primary winner in the April 29 special election. The outcome won’t flip the balance of power in the Senate, where Democrats currently have a two-vote majority.

“It’s a tough district, but we’re going to do everything we can. Folks are going to sign up to phonebank and door knock up there,” Minnesota DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom told MPR News this month. “And on April 29, we’re going to see just how much ground we can gain and hopefully gain enough to win that seat.”

The Republican contenders are largely in harmony on conservative positions, such as lowering taxes, cutting spending and barring transgender athletes from girls’ sports.

Several said they back Trump’s recent actions, including massive layoffs and cuts to federal agencies.

Jennifer Carnahan owns two shops in downtown Nisswa. Since January, she’s also served as mayor of the tourist destination north of Brainerd with about 2,000 residents, whose population swells in the summer.

Carnahan said she worked hard to win the mayoral seat and wasn’t eager to leave her new role. But when Eichorn abruptly resigned, she decided to throw her hat in the ring.

“I just didn’t view there was any loss to jump in,” she said. “I’d go out there and work hard, share my conservative values, how I could still be an asset and help Nisswa, but a broader community if I am elected. And if not, I still have my mayoral term for two years, and we can still do great things.”

Carnahan is a familiar name to political observers. She’s the widow of U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died of cancer in 2022. She’s also the former state Republican Party chair, whose tenure was marked by controversies before she resigned in 2021.

Also running is Josh Gazelka, whose father is former GOP Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka.

Josh Gazelka is 31 years old and lives in Pequot Lakes. He works for a Texas-based marketing firm and said he had no plans to get into politics.

“If you told me three weeks ago I’d be running, I think I would have laughed you out of the room,” he said in an interview earlier this month. “Because I’ve seen firsthand growing up what it looks like. It really is service paired with a lot of flak, no matter what you do.”

But Gazelka said when the seat came open, he felt a calling to serve, citing the impact of state taxes on the local economy as a key issue.

“I love the different businesses in the area. I love the idea of having my family here,” he said. “But I just know how difficult it is to just survive, and it’s driving people out of the state.”

Keri Heintzeman said she had been thinking for a while about running for office. She has campaigned for Trump and for her husband, Josh Heintzeman, who represents the area in the state House.

“I’ve knocked thousands and thousands of doors, and been able to hear what are the concerns of people and how that relates to government,” she said.

Heintzeman said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson first called to see if her husband was thinking about running for the Senate. But his departure would leave an open seat in the House, where membership is evenly split between parties.

“I said, ‘Do you have another candidate in mind from our area?’ And he said, ‘How about Keri Heintzeman?’ ” she recalled. “My heart leaped. I knew that that was something I’d been thinking about for many years.”

Heintzeman said her history with political campaigns helped her hit the ground running despite the shortened timeline, quickly launching lawn signs and campaign mailers. But she said she’s “not running as anybody’s wife.”

“I’m standing on my own two feet and my own experience,” she said.

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Other Republicans in the race include former Breezy Point Mayor Angel Zierden; retired Grand Rapids veterinarian John Howe; Steve Cotariu, an Army veteran and professional magician; conservative activist Doug Kern; and Matthew Zinda, who describes himself on Facebook as a self-employed driver, umpire and journalist.

Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 15. To find your polling place, go to pollfinder.sos.mn.gov.

The plaza outside Gate 34 at Target Field got a bit more crowded on Sunday as the Twins unveiled an 8-foot bronze statue of Hall of Fame catcher Joe Mauer.

At a pregame ceremony on the sun-drenched plaza, Mauer was joined by numerous former teammates, including Paul Molitor, Glen Perkins, Corey Koskie and Justin Morneau. Former Twins manager Tom Kelly read the text of a plaque that accompanies the statue.

Then Mauer’s children — twin daughters Maren and Emily, and son Chip — pulled off a black drop cloth to reveal the statue of their dad cast by local artist Bill Mack.

Mauer is depicted in full catcher’s gear, arm raised as if to throw out a would-be base stealer. Twins historian and curator Clyde Doepner had saved the gear Mauer wore during his 2009 MVP season and shared it with Mauer and Mack for the project.

“This means a lot more to me than you guys will ever know,” said Mauer, who noted he was glad he’d worn sunglasses, and not just because of the bright blue sky. “A lot of emotions right now.”

The statue is the eighth to be installed outside the ballpark, joining those honoring Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Kelly and former owners Carl and Eloise Pohlad.

Miranda, Lee trade places

One day after committing a baserunning blunder emblematic of the Twins’ early-season struggles, Jose Miranda found himself once again a member the Triple-A St Paul Saints.

Infielder Brooks Lee was reinstated from the injured list after Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Tigers, so the Twins needed to clear a roster spot.

Miranda might have made the decision easier during the game when he slid short of second base and then began walking off the field, not realizing that the Tigers’ infielder had not stepped on the bag. Miranda was tagged out and one of the day’s few rallies fizzled.

After the game, manager Rocco Baldelli focused on the need to play better in all phases of the game, and that a “shock” might be coming to wake up the clubhouse. But on Sunday, he noted that nobody was making Miranda the scapegoat.

“I would never point to sending a guy down as being a wakeup call for the rest of the group. If anyone takes it like that or … [it] maybe opens someone’s eyes out there, so be it,” Baldelli said.

Miranda, who last season tied the MLB record with hits in 12 consecutive at-bats, is one of many Twins players off to a slow start at the plate. He was hitting just .167 (6 for 36) with one home run, no walks and 13 strikeouts.

“I had a pretty thorough conversation with Jose Miranda when we sent him out,” Baldelli said. “I had a couple of different messages for him. It’s time for him to go down, play well and get his season rolling.”

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