If you are into symbolism or foreshadowing or Bourbon Street fortune tellers, it’s easy to believe Rory McIlroy lit the fuse on his 2023 Masters with his final swing in the 2022 edition of the most beautiful golf tournament in the world.
It was a year ago when McIlroy slapped his ball out of a greenside bunker on Augusta National’s 18th hole, watched it soft shoe its way into the cup, prompting him to sling his wedge to the ground and go spring-break joyful, having closed with a Sunday 64 that earned him a second-place finish but, perhaps more importantly, suggested that maybe there is a green jacket in his future.
Maybe it was nothing more than a sand-blasted punctuation mark on another near-miss or maybe, just maybe, it was a raw release of the weight McIlroy has carried around Augusta National for more than a decade.
Of all the stories pulsing through the spring air at Augusta this week – how will the newly lengthened par-5 13th will play, the LIV Golf awkwardness and the opinions of Scottie Scheffler’s champions’ dinner menu – McIlroy’s quest to capture the one major championship that has eluded him pulls at the heart as much as the head.
There is a collective emotional investment in McIlroy at the Masters, and should he be close to the lead come Sunday afternoon, Augusta National will sound and feel like a revival preaching the gospel of redemption.
Praise the Lord and pass the pimento cheese.
It’s easy to imagine McIlroy in a green jacket, a Masters lifer under the big tree and holding court at the champions dinner. But it was easy to imagine Greg Norman and Davis Love III and Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller doing the same thing until it never happened.
Golf’s funny that way. Larry Mize and Tommy Aaron and Danny Willett did what so many World Golf Hall of Famers couldn’t.
Augusta National tempts players to try to overpower it, and in spots they can. But part of the course’s genius is the price it extracts for a miss. Players can go from playing offense to defense in one swing.
If this year has a bigger sense of possibility, it’s because McIlroy has given us reason to believe. Throw out his missed cut at the Players Championship and consider his body of work since last summer. He’s been consistently brilliant.
“Everything feels in good order,” McIlroy said after his final pre-Masters start, in which he defeated world No. 1 Scheffler in the consolation match of the WGC Dell Match Play.
The story goes that McIlroy needed only 19 putts in a practice round at Augusta National recently. It’s an encouraging tease.
He has tweaked his equipment, opting for a slightly shorter shaft in his driver, giving him the feeling of more control with no loss of power. There is also a new putter in the bag and he talks like a man in the honeymoon stage. That’s critical because the numbers say he ranks 172nd in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour after being one of the very best on the greens last year.
He doesn’t need a great putting week to win the Masters but he does need a good one.
McIlroy walks into this Masters with eyes wide open. There is no hiding from the pressure or the expectations or his history.
“He has played himself out of the tournament year after year on Thursday, then all of a sudden gets it in gear, and it’s a gear too late,” television analyst Dottie Pepper said. “What happens on Thursday? What has he learned about how his preparation impacts what Thursday normally looks like? What is he going to do to adjust getting out of the blocks on Thursday the way he does on Friday, Saturday and Sunday?”
In the past four Masters, McIlroy has opened with rounds of 73, 76, 75, 73. That’s a crippling average start of 74.25.
“I’ve always thought that he plays Augusta National a little too aggressively, and if he could just turn it down just a notch or two and wait for his moments because he’s so good, they will be there for him and things may open up for him,” former Masters champion Trevor Immelman said.
McIlroy has wrestled with that reality through his years at the Masters. He has finished among the top 10 in seven of his past nine Augusta starts.
Though McIlroy may be the emotional favorite, he does not stand alone as the player to beat.
Jon Rahm plays with a blend of fury and finesse that makes him capable of magic. Scheffler, the defending champion, might win again this year and join Jack Nicklaus (1965, ’66), Nick Faldo (1989, ’90) and Tiger Woods (2001, ’02) as the only repeat winners. Jordan Spieth is doing Jordan Spieth things again.
If Cam Smith can tune out the LIV chatter or use it as fuel, he can handle Augusta’s greens as well as any player. Cameron Young is ferociously good, and Sam Burns is right there, too.
Then there’s Woods. If anyone can stir souls and imaginations together, the five-time Masters champion can.
The Masters has a rare radiance and the gift for letting the best players identify themselves. It’s why the history of winners and broken hearts is so familiar.
It makes you wonder why Fred Couples’ tee shot stopped on the bank on the 12th hole in 1992 and how Bubba Watson boomeranged a wedge shot around all of those pine trees in 2012 to win a green jacket he seemed destined to lose.
It’s what Jack did in 1986 and what Tiger did four years ago.
And it’s what provokes the thought of McIlroy finding his moment.
Maybe this is it.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Rory McIlroy
Gregory Shamus, Getty Images