At a tournament where experience is worth its weight in gold, it is slightly contradictory that only three people have successfully defended the Masters at Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy made the perfect start and became just the seventh defending champion to lead or co-lead the Masters after the opening round and the first since Jordan Spieth ten years ago. What should strike fear into the chasing pack is that he didn’t even play that well in his five-under 67. But he no longer needs to. This unburdened Rory is no longer weighed down by the ghosts of Masters past.
The statistics suggest McIlroy should have shot 77 rather than 67, hitting just five fairways and ranking 85th of the 91 players in the field in driving. His score made to look even better given that yesterday’s round was the highest scoring average for day one of the masters in five years (74.7).
So, as it stands, McIlroy is in position to at the very least give himself a chance to become just the fourth player to successfully defend the Green Jacket and join Jack Nicklaus – who did id three times – Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods in that exclusive club. Woods was the last player to retain in 2002. It’s been a while.
Mr Nicklaus was asked what the key is for McIlroy to create a little more history this week.
“Well, the key obviously is to win two years in a row. That’s the first thing. I think Rory is the only one that’s got a chance to do that this year,” said Nicklaus to a chorus of laughter in the interview room.
“What is the key to doing it? I played — when I was here in ’65, I broke a tournament record and shot 271. I don’t think — when we came back the next year, I remember Gary going to Mr. Roberts and saying, Mr. Roberts, the fairways are much longer this year. He said, Hit nothing but fliers, and the greens are like rocks. And Mr. Roberts said, Well, the greens are cut exactly the same as they were. Well, they weren’t, but that’s what he said. I don’t know.
“Anyway, I shot 288 that year, and I won in a playoff. You had totally different conditions, and that’s what you put up with. If you’re going to win two years in a row, you’ll find conditions you like and maybe you don’t find conditions you like, but you’ve got to adjust to both of those. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that.
“I think Rory is talented enough to be able to play it. Rory’s got the monkey off his back, and I think he has a very, very good chance to repeat.”
Fred Couples rolled back the years on Thursday, at least for fourteen holes, before a quadruple, double, double run from the 15th not only crushed the legion of first round leader stakeholders but probably ended his chances of making the cut after a 78.
But the 66-year-old did offer his take on whether McIlroy can complete the double.
“Rory may never lose this thing again after last year. I said that on about the 12th hole to my caddie. Then he birdied I think a couple coming in. You know, he’s really good.”
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