Rory McIlroy’s career will come to be defined by this Masters
Rory McIlroy may never get a better opportunity to win the Masters and complete the career Grand Slam as he does this year
Rory McIlroy might not want to admit it, but he’ll look back at this week’s Masters as the most important of his career.
The 29-year-old Northern Irishman is making his 11th career appearance at Augusta National this week, but he’s never come into the tournament on a run like he’s on now. McIlroy has undoubtedly been the best player on the PGA Tour this year, finishing inside the top-10 at all seven events he’s played in 2019 and winning the Players Championship last month. He leads the tour in numerous categories, including off the tee, tee to green and total strokes gained.
Behind everything McIlroy does this week lies the specter of completing the career Grand Slam. This will be the fifth year he’s teed up at the Masters needing only the Green Jacket to join golf’s most exclusive group. Only five players in the game’s modern era have won the Grand Slam—Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. None of them took more than three attempts to accomplish it.
A few years ago McIlroy would’ve been obsessed with the goal of joining those legends. Now, though, he’s trying a different approach. After winning the Players in March, McIlroy said he used to believe he needed to win the Masters. The difference now is he only wants to win. It’s a small change, but one that coincides with a shift in attitude that he’s working on where he tries not to look too far ahead.
Consistent with that attitude is his insistence he’s not putting too much stock into how he plays this week. “It’s to make the most of the next 20 years of my career. It’s not just about one week,” he said at his Tuesday press conference at Augusta National. “This is a lifelong journey of trying to improve and learn. Try to master my craft, which is golf. That’s what I’ve chosen as what I want to do with my life. That’s a lifelong pursuit. It’s not just one week a year.”
McIlroy has come close to wearing the Green Jacket before. Eight years ago, when he was a 21-year-old phenom, he took a four-shot lead into the final round but came undone on the back-nine. His tee shot at the 10th went so far left of the fairway he was in a spot that might have never been seen on television. He made a triple bogey on that hole on the way to shooting 80 on Sunday.
Last year, McIlroy was in the final pairing on Sunday with Patrick Reed. With a short eagle putt at the second hole to tie Reed, it looked like this would finally be McIlroy’s week. Instead, he missed the putt and never recovered, shooting 74 and falling to fifth place.
Those near-misses have made McIlroy try not to think about how he’ll play on Sunday afternoon or even Thursday afternoon. “No, I haven’t thought about it. I guess there’s a lot of bridges to cross before we get to that point,” he said.
McIlroy is taking a casual approach to this Masters, but he’s fooling himself if he doesn’t think he’ll be affected by it. Win this week and he joins the game’s upper-most pantheon. Lose, and regardless of what else he accomplishes in his career, there will always be that missing spot on the trophy case.
“I would dearly love to win this tournament one day. If it doesn’t happen this week, that’s totally fine. I’ll come back next year and have another crack at it,” he said today. He might think there’s always next year, but he’ll never have a better shot at winning the Green Jacket than he does now. Come up short once again this week, and you have to wonder whether he ever will.