Why Rory McIlroy felt ‘the worst’ at this year’s Masters … after a birdie

It didn’t arrive after the double bogey on 1. Or the double bogey on 13.

Nor did it come after bogeys on 11 and 14. Or the bogey on 18. 

No, Rory McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of this week’s Truist Championship, “the worst” he felt during the final round of last month’s Masters came in a bit of an unexpected spot, at least perhaps to the casual observer. 

After his birdie on the 10th hole. 

It put McIlroy up four strokes with eight holes to go. 

“I’m like, oh, I really can’t mess this up now,” he said. 

“There’s that pressure.”

What a game. Notably, the aforementioned double bogey on 13 and bogeys on 11, 14 and 18 played their part in putting McIlroy in a sudden-death playoff, though there he shined. His birdie, to Justin Rose’s par, gave him his first Masters win, his first major title in 11 years and the career grand slam — and the opportunity to look back on it all from the perspective of a champion. 

Tried as he did, McIlroy said, the moment at hand was in his head. 

“You know that you’re not just trying to win another tournament, you’re trying to become part of history, and that has a certain weight to it,” he said. “I’ve certainly felt that at Augusta over the years.”

What helped him this time?

“I always had hope,” McIlroy said. “It’s not as if I — I wasn’t going to show up at Augusta and feel like I couldn’t win. The week that I feel like that, I’ll go up there for the Champions Dinner and swan around in my green jacket, but I won’t be playing. Yeah, I always had hope. I always felt like I had the game. 

“And like I think, as everyone saw on that back nine on Sunday, it was about getting over — I don’t know what the right phrase is, but defeating my own mind was sort of the big thing for me and getting over that hurdle.

“Look, I’m just glad that it’s done. I don’t want to ever have to go back to that Sunday afternoon again. I’m glad that I finished the way I did, and we can all move on with our lives.”

Should you ask two of his fellow pros, the Sunday dramatics at least made for good theater, though. 

Justin Thomas, who tied for 36th, said he didn’t stick around for the ending. But he watched from his house. 

A couple days later, Thomas also joked with McIlroy. 

“I was like, you know, as the golf fan in me, I wanted a good tournament,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t necessarily — didn’t want anything — I don’t want to say bad to happen to anybody, but I wanted — I didn’t want to see somebody win by four or five as a golf fan, not specifically who it was.

“Then for a second I was like, all right, dude, it’s a tournament now. You’re good. You can go ahead and enjoy watching it like the rest of us.

“No, I was glued to the TV, and I was very excited to watch.”

Xander Schauffele, meanwhile, said it took a while to find a TV, though not by his choosing. 

“I was in the parking lot and doing the sort of classic — you know, some friends and some family there,” he said. “Everyone wants to take a photo. I was like, we need to get home and watch the end of this because I don’t know what’s happening. I was definitely a fan in that moment.”

“In terms of the drama factor, it’s been a while since there’s been sort of that much drama, I feel like,” he continued. “Everyone I talk to is saying the same thing. It’s like a must-watch, what is going to happen thing, you know what I mean? 

“It was unfortunate, obviously, that there had to be a loser there, but it was a cool, cool thing for golf.”

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