Rory Repears as Masters Champion
When asked to grade his play in this year’s Masters, Rory McIlroy said, “I didn’t drive the ball great. I drove it better today. I would say I’d give it like a B-minus.” He definitely was grading his Sunday driving when he hit 10 out of 14 fairways, which was certainly an improvement over the first three rounds. For the week, McIlroy was ranked T-52 (next to last), hitting only 31 out of 56 fairways. Some might describe his play as “pine straw-friendly.”
But the Northern Irishman was on the mark when he gave his overall short game an “A plus” on Sunday night.
“My scrambling, my short game, and my putting, that’s what won me the tournament this week.”
As the defending champion, finally unburdened by winning the Masters as well as completing the Career Grand Slam last year, McIlroy was relaxed, composed, and confident early in the week. On Tuesday afternoon, after his crowded press conference, he reminded me of a younger Phil Mickelson. First playing in the Masters as an amateur in ’91, Mickelson finally broke through in 2004. After donning that green jacket, he won two more Masters titles (’06, ’10) along with three more majors, including two PGAs and an Open Championship. The first Masters title liberated him from heavy expectations.
On Tuesday, here’s how Rory expressed himself in terms of the difference felt this year: “I think the best way that I can describe it is — well, firstly, 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. 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…I feel so much more relaxed.”
The famed Canadian golf professional George Knudsen used to say, “You don’t play golf to relax; you relax to play golf.” And it’s not just physical relaxation; it’s mental as well.
McIlroy touched upon this aspect of championship golf on Sunday night. A reporter asked him to comment on “the odd mystery of the game” and “what is it about this game where the player is never exactly the same one day to the next?”
Thoughtful, candid, and reflective in recent years, McIlroy didn’t hesitate: “You have a lot of time to think. You’re out there a long time. There’s a long time between shots,” said McIlroy. “There’s a long time between rounds.”
He was dead on. Unlike most elite athletes caught up in all-engaging, highly active, and physical play, golfers must expertly strike a stationary ball, accept the results, and then do it again after a period of time. And at the Masters, they must do it for four hours or more over four days. There’s a lot of time to think and overthink.
“Of all the big sports, I do think it (golf) is the most mental,” said McIlroy. “It’s the most challenging mentally. I think it’s hard to stay in the same mental space for four days in a row.”
As an example, he cited his driving on the dogleg left par-five 13th hole, pivotal for making birdies. “All of my practice rounds up here, the weeks leading into it and finally this Monday, Tuesday, were great. I hit two left on Wednesday off the tee,” said McIlroy, referring to his long drawing drives during a practice round on the eve of the tournament. “Then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I didn’t sniff hitting the fairway. So it’s just there are little things that happen that just start to make you second-guess things.”
With that much time to ponder outcomes between shots, let alone between rounds, elite professional golfers must quiet their minds and the little voices whispering doubt in their ears.
In the crucible of competition, they must also rely on experience and learned advice. For McIlroy, the shot of the tournament was at the par-three 12th hole on Sunday. Trying to decipher the confounding vagaries of the wind from the tee, McIlroy took his time at this crucial moment in the tournament. He recalled the advice given to him by Masters champion Tom Watson in 2009. It was about patience; it was about waiting.
“He said on the 12th, he always waited until he felt where the wind should be and then just hit it.” And that’s what McIlroy did. “It (the wind) was all over the place. When I stood up on the tee, it felt like it was off the right, and I looked at the 11th flag, it was blowing right to left. But I was patient, and I waited to feel where the wind should have been coming from, and I knew it was just a perfect 3/4 9-iron.”
His crisp shot soared over the pond, the guarding bunkers and found the green, leaving him a short birdie putt which he made.
“That was a really good golf shot at the right time and probably a golf shot I wouldn’t have been able to hit yesterday if I didn’t go to the range and try to figure a few things out…Yeah, absolutely huge, huge shot in the tournament.”
He wasn’t just referring to the 12th tee when asked Sunday what this tournament and this golf course had taught him about life.
“Good things come to those who wait…”
Images courtesy of the Masters
