Rory McIlroy has been enjoying all the perks that come with being the Masters champion, taking in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt. He appears unburdened and almost unbothered in his demeanour, the demon that accompanied him on the yearly drive up Magnolia Lane is long gone.
There is a sense that McIlroy feels no matter how many majors he won he would never truly belonged at Augusta National unless he was in a Green Jacket. On Tuesday the mouths of champions young and old will be fed in his honour. It is an occasion he will savour as his last pre-Masters act as defending champion – perhaps why he swerved the Ulster fry or an Irish stew in favour of tuna parcaccio and and peach and ricotta flatbread.
“I think it’s one of the best traditions in sport,” McIlroy said while wearing the Green Jacket in his pre-tournament press conference. “And I’m very grateful to be a part of it. I’m obviously going to get my first experience of it tonight and looking forward to many, many more years.
“I would say I’m quite a procrastinator, so I probably put it off [deciding the menu] for as long as possible until I actually really had to think about it, which was probably at the back end of last year, starting to think about how to put it together.
“But it was a fun process to go through. I was trying to achieve something that I would enjoy but also something — and it ties back to experiences that I’ve had, but also wanted it to be something that all the other people in that room would enjoy as well.
“People keep asking me why didn’t you go more Irish? And I said, because I want to enjoy the dinner as well,” he laughed.
McIlroy’s imposter syndrome at the Masters extended to the clubhouse. Open to all players and their families it was still littered with Green Jackets, so he shied away from entering when he could.
Tuesday had never been McIlroy’s favourite day of Masters week, seeing his peers slip into their best clothes and a sea of green enter the Augusta National library stung. So much, that last year he was afraid to get out of the car to have dinner with Justin Rose and some other Augusta members.
“I tell this pretty funny story about last year myself and Justin Rose actually went for dinner at the club last year on the Tuesday night with a few of the Augusta National members, and the way — it was weird, I was pulling up Magnolia Lane, and you get to the circle, and I’m like, well, do I go and park way over at the parking lot? Because I’m not going to park in the champions parking lot.
“Then at that specific moment, the champions were having their cocktails out on the balcony. I’m like I don’t want to valet, get out, they’re going to see me and it’s going to be weird. So I had this really awkward moment with it all last year. Yeah, thankfully that was the last time that I needed to do that.”
McIlroy didn’t quite follow in the footsteps of blubbering Bubba in 2013 but you could tell that the Champions Dinner will mean a lot to him and he is keen to strike the right tone with his speech.
“I’ve thought about it a lot. Honestly, I’ve probably thought about that more than the food. So many legends of the game there. Obviously there’s two that won’t be with us this year, which is a shame, but hopefully they will be with us in the future, and I’m sure they will be with us in the future.
“But talking in front of that group, I want to say the right things and make sure I get my feelings across of how grateful I am to be a part of that group.
“I’ll follow Ben Crenshaw’s lead. I know he’ll direct the run of show a little bit. But yeah, I have a few remarks that I want to make. I’m not going to say it all here, I’ll wait for tonight, but I have thought about it a lot.”
As for the tournament at hand, McIlroy spoke about finding a new motivation that winning the grand slam isn’t actually his destination and the goalposts have moved elsewhere. Nobody has retained the Masters since Tiger Woods in 2002 and McIlroy has arrived a freer more jovial self and that might be what can help him free-wheel his way to the top again.
No storms feature in this week’s perfect weather forecast, although he wouldn’t mind too much if the 90th edition got rained out of it.
“I would have never gotten up here this early. I would have never arrived on a Saturday. I usually arrive earliest Sunday night but probably Monday, Monday evening.
“I think for the past 17 years I just could not wait for the tournament to start, and this year I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started (laughter). That’s sort of the difference.
“Yeah, it’s completely different. I feel so much more relaxed. I know that I’m going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks that the champions get here. It doesn’t make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but yeah, just more relaxed about it all.”
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