The Masters Is Almost Here, and Rory Again Is a Story
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If Rory McIlroy hoped to arrive at Augusta National in a week’s time with a dimmed spotlight and little fanfare, he failed miserably.
McIlroy promised to be one of the biggest stories at the Masters, regardless of his performance at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. That he failed to win the title hardly matters. That he performed quite nicely throughout the majority of the five days, seven rounds and 122 holes only heightened the awareness.
For the ninth straight year, McIlroy will arrive at the Masters with a chance to complete the career Grand Slam.
The possibilities seemed endless in 2015, when he was coming off of consecutive major victories at the 2014 British Open and PGA Championship, giving him a total of four majors at age 25 with a slew of chances ahead.
Now 33, McIlroy is still among the game’s elite, with several examples to show for it this past week.
But the fact that he has never won the Masters and—more surprisingly—hasn’t added a fifth major title is both perplexing and part of golf.
How many players throughout history who were expected to win the Masters never did? Greg Norman, Ernie Els and Davis Love III come to mind. What about the career Grand Slam? Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino and Phil Mickelson are among the notables not to do it.
It is also true that the majority of major championship winners did their damage in a short time. Palmer won all of his between 1958 and 1964. Watson between 1975 and 1983. It is rare for someone to win a major six years after winning his last—as Jack Nicklaus did in 1986—let alone 11 years later, such as Tiger Woods in 2019.
So what once seemed all but automatic is now anything but, although McIlroy—except for a short period during the pandemic—has been a top-10 player throughout this stretch, with numerous victories and opportunities to win majors.
There was no better chance than at last year’s British Open, where McIlroy and Viktor Hovland led by four over the field heading into the final round. McIlroy hit all 18 greens in regulation, shot 2-under-par 70 at St Andrews, and still finished two strokes behind winner Cameron Smith.
Since winning the 2014 PGA at Valhalla, McIlroy has 17 top 10s in majors, including all four last year. Six of those top 10s have come at the Masters, including four top 5s and a runner-up finish to Scottie Scheffler last year.
And yet, McIlroy has never really been a serious back-nine contender at Augusta since his 2011 final-round implosion, where he shot a final-round 80 that included a triple-bogey on the 10th hole.
Most of his high finishes since have been due to a final-day charge when winning was a longshot. Last year’s final-round 64 saw him still finish three strokes back of Scheffler.
Perhaps his best opportunity came in 2018, when he was in the final pairing with eventual champion Patrick Reed. McIlroy trailed by three entering the last day and—after Reed bogeyed the first hole—had a 4-footer for eagle at the par-5 2nd to pull into a tie but missed.
Reed then birdied the third while McIlroy bogeyed and never got closer. He ended up in a tie for sixth, six shots back.
Now what? Missing the cut at the Players Championship might have been the best thing to happen to McIlroy. He headed home to work out some driver issues, and while this seems quite late in the game to be having those problems, McIlroy seemed pleased to have worked them out with a different club.
Rory McIlroy appears to be a in a good place with his driver going into the Masters.
Eric Gay/AP
“I feel like I took it out of the box (on March 17) and the first two shots with it I was like, 'here we go,'" he said. “That's what it should be. When you're trying to fit clubs and stuff I don't think there should be too much fiddling about with it. It was like first two shots out of the box and it was like, 'yeah, I think I've got one here.' So it's nice to sort of see that feeling translate into the same thing on the golf course."
McIlroy drew raves for his tee shot on the 18th hole Thursday where he drove the green to set up an easy birdie and victory. At one point in the tournament, he had failed to hit a tee shot less than 300 yards with the driver.
But McIlroy might have been even more pleased to find success on the greens where, despite no official stats due to the tournament being match play, he gained strokes in five of his seven rounds.
“That’s the only thing I would do is just sort of tidying up there and trying to feel a little more solid with the putting," he said. “The rest of the game feels in real good shape."
Another good sign? His recent visit to Augusta National. While pre-tournament-week practice rounds on the Masters course should be viewed for what they are—a chance to see the course when it is unlikely to play as it will during the tournament—it’s still impressive to learn that McIlroy played one of his rounds with just 19 putts and got some good vibes as part of the visit.
“I had two good days," he said. “We played 54 holes in two days and it was good. I was really happy with where my game was. It was sort of good to see that after struggling at the Players."
McIlroy certainly has plenty of reason to feel good about heading to the Masters. He won earlier this year in Dubai. He had a solid week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and an impressive run at the Match Play.
Now it’s a matter of funneling all that into a successful week at Augusta National, where McIlroy’s own history suggests it won’t be easy even if all signs point to him being a big part of the story.