McIlroy grasps at elusive quarry
AUGUSTA, Ga. — For Rory McIlroy, the Masters title is like a feather. Every time he has tried to grasp it, the energy from his effort has pushed it out of his reach.
McIlroy has advanced to the weekend in eight of his nine appearances at Augusta National Golf Club. Three times, he has stood third or better at the tournament’s halfway point, seemingly in prime position to pounce, but his best finish in those years was a tie for 10th in 2016.
Unlike Tiger Woods, who won three of the five times he was third or higher after 36 holes here, McIlroy’s best results at Augusta National have come as a persistent hunter. In 2015, he entered the weekend in 19th place and finished fourth. In 2014, he vaulted from 46th to a tie for eighth over the final 36 holes.
After a second-round 1-over-par 73, McIlroy was five strokes behind the lead pack of Rickie Fowler, Sergio García, Charley Hoffman and Thomas Pieters.
In addition to those four, he is chasing five others. Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods make up the ultraexclusive club of men who have won the career Grand Slam, and McIlroy, 27, has been trying to crack the entry code since winning the 2014 British Open.
Trying is the operative word. McIlroy plays his best golf when his swing is free and easy, but how can he stay relaxed when he is one Masters victory from immortality and nobody will let him forget it?
“I feel like I’ve put a few mental processes in place where I can focus on the job at hand,” McIlroy said, adding: “Nothing’s given to you. You have to go and work for it.”
It would help if McIlroy could string together a sub70 score today, a feat he has pulled off once in seven previous Masters third rounds, where he has averaged 73.3 strokes.
“The wind is supposed to be basically nonexistent, 5 to 10 miles an hour, which really isn’t much around here,” McIlroy said. “I would say, a couple of rounds in the midto high 60s, you’d have to shoot to have a chance.”
He added, “If I can put together a 67 or a 66 tomorrow, I feel like I’ll be right in there for Sunday.”
McIlroy was bidding for a wire-to-wire victory at the 2011 Masters before a collapse on the final nine holes dropped him into a tie for 15th.
“I feel like I’ve taken lessons from that day, and they have served me well to this point,” he said.
Six years later, McIlroy is unquestionably a better player. If he has a deficiency, it’s his play around, and on, the greens, an area where this tournament is consistently won and lost.
After two rounds, McIlroy is tied for 15th in scrambling (directly behind a group that includes 58-year-old Larry Mize, the 1987 champion, and Pieters).
“He does struggle around, and on, the greens, and that’s just a place where you cannot struggle and expect to be the champion at the end of the week,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said before the tournament. “He can do almost everything that Augusta National needs of him, except scramble particularly well.”
McIlroy chipped in for birdie on the par-3 sixth to get into red numbers, at 1 under, for the first time this week. He had also recorded an unlikely birdie on the par-4 5th after his drive missed the fairway and he had to hit his approach off some mulch, “or whatever they lay down there that smells really bad,” McIlroy said.
His shot came up smelling like azaleas, and he made the putt.
“That was a bonus to make 3 after that tee shot,” McIlroy said.
His luck ran out on the par4 18th. McIlroy’s approach hit the flagstick, and it caromed several yards to the right. He ended up with a bogey and felt a bit deflated.
“I felt like I could have shot a couple under out there today, 2- or 3-under par,” he said. “But I missed a couple of short ones and got a little bit unlucky at the last.”
He didn’t sound resigned when he said that. He also said something that should put the European golf community, which reads McIlroy’s words like tea leaves, at ease: “I feel I’m playing well enough, and I’m in a good frame of mind, where I can go out there and attack and make some birdies and try to get closer to the lead.”
There was that word again — try. As he embarks on a potentially monumental weekend, McIlroy should remember that the harder he tries to get what he dearly wants, the more likely that last feather in his crown is to elude him.