When Rory McIlroy arrived at Augusta National for his 11th attempt at completing the Career Grand Slam, it was widely believed that his game was in its best shape yet.
Wins at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and at The Players Championship meant it was the first time in his 17 previous visits that he’d driven down Magnolia Lane with two wins already under his belt that year, and the rest was history.
Now, one year on, his pre-tournament preparations have been vastly different. He has yet to win – though did come close at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera – and he was forced to withdraw from the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the halfway mark after suffering a back injury.
He attempted to defend his title at TPC Sawgrass a week later, but wasn’t able to prepare in the way he’d have liked and wasn’t even sure if he’d tee it up until his Thursday tee time actually arrived, and while last year he played the Houston Open a fortnight before the Masters, this year, he’s opted to practice at home.
And all of this raises question marks for Paul McGinley.
“He got disrupted in Florida,” McGinley told Sky Sports News.
“It really cost him two tournaments, Bay Hill, where he was doing OK after two rounds and had to pull out with a back injury, and the following week [at The Players], when he actually did play, but with no preparation.
“He finished well down the field and his stats were well off the pace there. It is a bit worrying. He did get distracted, although he says he’s over the injury now and he’s taken a few weeks off. He’s at home in Florida practicing and getting ready.”
Besides the difficulties that the injury has thrown up, McGinley also feels that, as defending champion, the additional obligations could have a negative impact on his readiness to hit the ground running once the gun goes off and the focus switches to tournament golf entirely.
“It’s always difficult to defend at the Masters,” the 2014 Ryder Cup-winning captain and two-time Masters competitor said. “There are so many obligations you have as a defending champion, not just hosting the dinner on Tuesday night for past champions.
“He’ll probably be around there at the ladies’ event before that and maybe even the Drive, Chip and Putt for the kids the day before. So there are a lot of obligations, a lot of pressure, a lot of scrutiny.”
Since the tournament’s inception, only Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have mounted successful defences, and each only managed it on one occasion.
McIlroy, however, has been under immense pressure each time he’s arrived at Augusta National since completing the third leg of the Career Grand Slam in winning the 2024 Open Championship. The pressure of all the additional obligations may be new, but they are pressures that he’ll welcome and ones that McGinley feels pale in comparison to those of the previous 11 years.
“I guess it’s nothing like he had last year when he was on the verge of trying to win a Grand Slam and eventually getting over the line in such incredible circumstances,” he said, before going on to acknowledge that he may be a little more ‘freed up’ when play finally gets underway and in the major championships that follow.
“Yeah, I think there probably will be [a sense of freedom]. I think he’ll get really focused on what he’s doing. I think the distraction coming into the Masters is going to be difficult for him to deal with, but I think once he gets through this Masters again, he’s got to reset himself on winning major titles again. And he may well raise a gallop at the Masters,” McGinley said.
“You know, his form and his injuries in the last two or three weeks suggest that maybe he’s going to be off the boil, and with all the challenges like I’ve outlined coming into the Masters — in terms of his time consumption going in there — that’s going to make it difficult. Normally that doesn’t drive him into focus, it drives him away from focus. So it’ll be interesting to see how he handles all that.
“But it is a golf course that suits him. He’s going back to unbelievably strong memories from last year. And of course you’re not going to discount him. You know, he’s a very charismatic person as well as a golfer. And hopefully he’s in the shake-up there because you get the charisma of Augusta National combined with the charisma of players like him in contention. That’s what makes it box office.”
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