It ain't over til... it's Friday
Rory McIlroy looks unstoppable after leaving the Masters field in his wake
AUGUSTA, Ga.—The 90th Masters probably ended here Friday after 35 holes. At least, the suspenseful part ended.
Rory McIlroy, your defending champion, was already 5 under par for the second round before holed a pitch shot from short of the 17th green, a play as unlikely as it was magnificent. There was no Tiger Woods-like fist pump to electrify the crowd but Rory isn’t Tiger and Friday isn’t Sunday, if you get the drift. Rory simply raised his club in the air in a mix of surprise, because he couldn’t see the bottom of the flagstick from below the green so he had to wait until the gallery reacted, and confidence, because he wasn’t expecting to make it but yeah, when you’re on a roll like hot lava toward the ocean, act like you knew you’d make it.
More tension was erased on the final hole. McIlroy hit a bullet drive up the right side of the 18th with a wee fade (not his favorite direction) and followed it with a 9-iron shot that came off the bank in the greens center and listened to the fans’ roars as his ball backed down the slope to within six feet. He made that putt, too, for another birdie. That meant he birdied six of the last seven holes, shot 65 and set a Masters record for the largest 36-hole lead, six strokes.
Sam Burns and Patrick Reed probably felt like they lit it up for two rounds to get to six under. But now they’re in the same boat as everyone else who’s not going to win the 90ths Masters. They’re stacked up behind McIlroy like cars on Washington Road in front of Augusta National during tournament week, moving slowly if at all. they’re going to have a difficult time catching McIlroy. Even if McIlroy finished 72 holes at 12 under par, where he is now, it won’t be easy to catch him.
“I think we’re seeing a Rory McIlroy we’ve never seen here,” said renowned coach Butch Harmon on the Sky Sports telecast. “He’s got his green jacket, he’s relaxed. This course suits him the way it suited Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. He can overpower it at times and his short game has gotten better and better and it’s been a joy to watch.”
Time out for a quick history lesson. McIlroy will never be confused with Woods, career-wise. When he won last year’s Masters after an 11-year drought, it was his fifth major. That’s ten fewer than Tiger. But McIlroy can play Tiger-esque dominating golf at times.
Reminder No. 1: He won the 2012 PGA Championship at the Ocean Course by eight strokes, a PGA record that broke the mark held by Nicklaus (1980) and Nick Price (1994).
Reminder No. 2: McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional by eight shots. Only three players ever won an Open by more: Jim Barnes by nine (1921); Willie Smith by 11 (1899); and the afore-mentioned Tiger gent by 15 at Pebble Beach (2000).
McIlroy has dominant golf in his genes and maybe in his jeans, too. He has putted like Tiger Woods in his prime this week and chipped like him, too. McIlroy credits that to multiple visits to Augusta since the last event he played, the Players Championship. He spent lots of time chipping and putting around the greens, cementing his course knowledge, and playing one ball around to focus on shooting a score. Not coincidentally, that last part was what Nicklaus always did in his major championship preparation. He’d go in a week or two early and play several rounds and get the confidence that he could score low on that course at tournament time.
“I guess I’m turning into a wily old veteran,” McIlroy joked after his stunning performance.
There’s that. There’s also the burden that was lifted by finally land his green whale—the Masters. Which came in a BOGO package with the Career Grand Slam. It was a different McIlroy, as Harmon said, who met with the media Tuesday. He explained how he normally couldn’t wait for the tournament to start because he was anxious and full of anticipation but this year, he was enjoying the feeling of being a member of the elite Masters champion club, hosting a dinner and having fulfilled his dreams, and said he didn’t care if the tournament ever started.
A sports psychologist might say he was relaxed and ready to pounce. Another might say he was complacent and not ready to play. At 12 under par through two rounds, we have our answer.
“This course enables you to get on runs,” McIlroy said. “I didn’t imagine birdieing six of the last seven but you can get momentum, get the crowd on your side and keep going and this was one of those afternoons.
“I’ve always loved this tournament and this course even when I felt it didn’t love me back. It’s unique, there’s nothing else like it. I so desperately wanted to win here so I could come back every year. Right now, I feel like I’m playing with the house’s money.”
There are things to play for. You can expect the topics that will be discussed during Rory’s expected re-coronation this weekend will be a second Grand Slam run. He could go for the calendar-year Slam, which no one has done since Bobby Jones. He can try to join Nicklaus and Woods as the only players to win the Career Slam twice. Another Masters, paired with his second PGA title, would make him halfway there.
The Official World Rankings are currently incredibly lopsided. Scottie Scheffler has twice as big a points average as the No. 2 player in the world, McIlroy. But is the scale starting to tip? Is the tide shifting? Scheffler has been struggling a little this year and McIlroy looks, well, unstoppable. A Masters victory would put a dent in the gap between No. 1 and No. 2.
None of that matters to McIlroy, of course. Those things are bonuses that simply come with winning.
“Golf is the most amazing game because it’s your and your golf ball and the golf course, and that’s it,” he said. “You shouldn’t be affected by anyone else.”
The lesson he learned in 2011 when he was young and inexperienced and blew a big lead on the back nine Sunday at the Masters but bounced back two months later with an incendiary victory at Congressional was not to back off.
“Look, I’ve built up a nice cushion at this point,” McIlroy said. “I guess my mindset is just to keep playing well and keep my foot on the gas.”
His play wasn’t perfect. He hit drives into the trees on 13, 15 and 17 and birdied all three. He was impressive.
At the par-3 12th, he dropped an iron shot 5 feet above the hole. He had to lay up at 13, then wedged to 7 feet for another birdie. At 15, a layup and a wedge to 6 feet. He played the bank at the par-3 16th to perfection and hit it to a foot. Then the pitch-in at 17 and a 6-footer for birdie at 18.
Six-seven is some kind of mysterious trendy number. Nobody expected it to apply to the Masters as in McIlroy birdies six of the last seven.
“Look at the guys who are up there and then look at how he’s already separated himself,” Harmon said. “Rory goes out in 65, birdies the last four holes—what are you gonna say? He hadn’t won a major in 11 years and boom, boom! Here we are.”
Harmon had it right when he said this is a different Rory. When his short game and putting are on and he’s booming 350-yard drives mostly in play, it’s an intimidating combination. It sounds like a description of Tiger in his prime. McIlroy shot 31 on the back nine, by the way. He knows he is capable of grabbing Augusta National by the neck.
“Even going back to my first year in 2009, I shot 30 on the back nine on Sunday,” McIlroy said. “So I’ve always had the ability to go on these runs. It was getting to the point where I would allow myself to play the course the way that I knew I could. It was getting past myself, staying aggressive, My little mantra today was, ‘Keep swinging, keep swinging hard even if you’re not hitting fairways.’ Over the years here, my mindset hasn’t always been, Keep swinging. It’s been guiding, tentative. The experience I’ve accrued and with what happened last year, it makes it easier to keep swinging.”
McIlroy will make two more trips around Augusta National this weekend. This Masters won’t be over, officially, until then. He was asked if he’d rather win a Masters with a dramatic shot on the last hole or win in a runaway. McIlroy grinned and answered, “What do you think?”
It will be a memorable Masters this weekend, just not a thrilling one if McIlroy has his way.
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