One of sport’s great clichés is that Augusta National is built for Rory McIlroy. Unfortunately a Masters without wind, delays and pressure doesn’t exist.
Two missed cuts in his last four Masters appearances would suggest that this is more of a fallacy than a cliché and last year McIlroy’s game was completely exposed and outclassed by Scottie Scheffler who won his second green jacket.
But McIlroy has come out a different animal this year. A new swing trigger and mental attitude – partly taken from Scheffler – has seen the four-time major winner add to his toolbox and he will head to Augusta National next week with an arsenal fully equipped to finally win the career grand slam.
McIlroy’s two wins at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship have seen him combine some vintage play with some clinical discipline, both weeks where he didn’t have his A-game. Something which should be very encouraging for those of us preparing to climb the emotional mountain with him again this year.
In the second round of last year’s Masters, McIlroy was world number two and Scheffler was number one, but there was a world of difference between the two.
The wind sky rocketed and with it came six hour rounds. Scheffler and McIlroy were playing together and the former ground out a crucial 72 while the latter? Another Groundhog Day 77 to once again extinguish any faint hopes of a maiden green jacket before the weekend.
Less than a year since he questioned his own technique on Netflix’s Full Swing, McIlroy was left searching for answers.
And he has found them.
He has shots in his bag that he didn’t have twelve months ago. The sawn off 9-iron into the 17th hole at Sawgrass in the playoff with JJ Spaun, this tactical discipline to miss the pin to the right when hitting into a tucked left hand pin from left of the fairway. Two five irons held off Shane Lowry on the 72nd hole at Pebble Beach the previous month.
McIlroy has shown a controlled aggression which is something he has taken from Scheffler over the last year as he looks to expand his repertoire.
But Bob Rotella’s fingerprints are all over this McIlroy mould and expectations have soared since the Northern Irishman won the Players Championship.
The grand slam is very much on and seems bound by belief more than hope this year and the challenge for Rory will be to maintain his freedom and clarity of thought, particularly during the inevitable sticky patches he will encounter.
The 35-year-old has opened with rounds of 73, 75, 76, 73 and 72 in five of his last six Masters outings to leave himself with a mountain to climb only to do what has now become his trademark and ‘reverse into a top-10.’
Only twice has he shot in the 60s during the opening round (2011 and 2018) and they turned out to be his best chances to win a first Masters title.
Rotella’s influence will be vital.
“Are we really glad that he did it? Yeah,” Rotella said of McIlroy’s Sawgrass win on the ‘Musings on Golf’ podcast.
“Might it be helpful? Yeah. Might it have put on more pressure? Yeah. It’s all about getting in the right state of mind at the Masters. But yeah, it’s a really good thing, and we’re thrilled that he did it. I loved how he played and where he got his head… it’s another step in the right direction.
“But, you know, we’re probably going to spend as much time talking about the fact that whether you win the Masters or don’t, you’re going to have an unbelievable career. We’re probably going to find ways to take pressure off it so that he can win it… he’s doing everything humanly possible to give himself a chance. But he also understands there’s lots of other great players.”
Scheffler’s 62 in Houston was a warning to his fellow green jacket contenders but regardless of what the world number one does this weekend in Texas, he might still be the man to beat but McIlroy is the form horse and for the first time in a long time he has two massive wins early in the season.
There is nothing interesting here, this is McIlroy’s best chance of winning the Masters in years and that is a fact.
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