AUGUSTA, Ga.>> Justin Rose kept hitting balls to stay loose at the tournament practice facility, all alone save for longtime caddie Mark Fulcher, everything eerily quiet around him while drama was unfolding elsewhere on Sunday at the Masters.

Rose had generated roars of his own down the stretch at Augusta National, the biggest of all coming at the 18th, when he rolled in a 20-footer for birdie and then looked to the heavens. It finished off a round of 66, and pulled him into a tie with Rory McIlroy at 11 under, and ultimately sent Rose off to prepare for the possibility of a playoff.

He got it when McIlroy missed a putt on the 18th hole some 40 minutes later.

The two headed back to the 18 for a sudden-death showdown. Rose striped a drive down the right side, McIlroy matched him down the middle. Rose knocked his approach to 15 feet, McIlroy stuck to 3 feet. But when Rose slid his birdie putt past, and McIlroy drained his own, he finally had the one leg of the grand slam that had so long eluded him.

And once again, Rose had been denied in a playoff at Augusta National. The former U.S. Open and Olympic champion was part of the last one in the Masters, eight years ago, when he lost to Sergio Garcia on the first sudden-death hole.

“This is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it? Someone who achieves the career grand slam,” Rose said afterward, magnanimous in defeat. “I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”

Meanwhile, it also was Rose’s second straight second-place finish in a major. He was tied for second after the second round of the British Open last year, and he wound up finishing right there, two shots behind Xander Schauffele at Royal Troon.

“I hit a lot of quality shots under pressure, and I felt like I was getting stronger and stronger as the round was going on,” Rose said. “I felt so good with my game, good with my emotions, and I’m super proud of that. Because you can’t prepare for that. You can’t practice for that. That’s when you learn about yourself, and I’m still learning about myself.”

The fact that the 44-year-old Rose was even in contention Sunday was a testament to his stubborn refusal to quit.

He held the first-round lead after a superlative 65 on Thursday, and again after his second-round 71. But when Rose shot 75 on Saturday, and McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau made big charges, he came into Sunday as an afterthought.

As the sunlight faded over the Georgia pines, Rose and McIlroy — close friends and Ryder Cup teammates — returned to the 18th tee.

Only one of them was able to make the putt that mattered. “Unfortunately, the playoff, they always end so quickly,” Rose said. “I’m not sure I could have done much more today.”