AUGUSTA — For the first time since 2015, Rory McIlroy’s focus here at the Masters is not on running down the elusive Grand Slam. This year, it’s Wednesday’s Par-3 Tournament that he’s thinking about most.
“It’s funny. When you don’t have children, the Par-3 seems like a bit of an afterthought,” McIlroy said Tuesday morning before rain drenched Augusta National Golf Club. “Then, once kids arrive, it sort of becomes the highlight of the week in a way. I’m looking forward to it. It will be fun to get out there tomorrow and watch her run around.”
“Her” is McIlroy’s daughter Poppy. Twenty months old this month, Poppy is the first and only child of McIlroy and his wife of five years, Erica.
Yes, golf’s Boy Wonder is now on the other side of 30. At age 32, he’s playing in his 14th Masters. Quite notably, he hasn’t won it.
He has come close, of course. He finished fourth here in 2015 and in the top 5 three times. With six, nobody has had more top-10 finishes at the Masters than McIlroy since he made his debut as an 18-year old from Northern Ireland in 2014. That’s more than Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood, who have five each.
Yet this is not a place of warm-and-fuzzy memories for McIlroy. If the international golf press were to be believed, it’s like his personal house of horrors. They’ll point out that several of those Masters were “back-in top 10s.” They’ll point to the final-round meltdown of 2011 and the weak fade of 2018, when he shot 74 on Sunday to finish fifth. They’ll bring up last year’s missed cut.
Since McIlroy won the British Open and PGA championships in 2014, this is where his dream of winning the Grand Slam has come to die. And, truthfully, most of those have been agonizing deaths. With the exception of last year’s cut, his average finish in that span has been seventh.
But between McIlroy’s older, wiser perspective and international weariness with the storyline, completing the Grand Slam is almost an afterthought this year.
“I would say (there’s) less pressure,” McIlroy said. “My best finish was the first go-around to try to win the Slam (fourth in 2015). … Jordan played wonderfully that week. I played well, maybe not as well as I could, but I played pretty much up to my potential, and it just wasn’t good enough that week.”
Here again, McIlroy referred to his altered outlook. In 2011, when he led the first three rounds before hitting that wicked hook into the cabins on No. 10, he ate, drank and slept golf. From then until 2017, when a rib injury briefly halted his assault, McIlroy entered almost every tournament as the favorite.
The adoration and expectation, back home in Ireland and in his new home of Florida, was almost Tiger-like.
“Then golf was everything,” McIlroy said. “Look, obviously, it’s still very, very important. But maybe back then, I don’t know if I would feel like I was fulfilled if I didn’t win one or whatever it is. But it’s less pressure (now). I know if I play well, I’ll give myself chances to win this golf tournament.”
Exactly where McIlroy’s game is at this year is debatable. He has played in just five events this season, with two top-fives and a win at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas last October. He’s still ranked ninth in the world but only 27th in the FedExCup Standings and missed the cut last week at the Valero Open.
All of that, though, is pretty much out the window any time a professional of McIlroy’s ilk drives through the gates onto Magnolia Lane.
“It feels in good shape. I think it’s felt better than the results have maybe suggested the last few weeks,” McIlroy said of his game. “The big key here, if you look at all the previous winners, especially over the last five to 10 years, their iron play and their approach play has separated them from the field. That’s a really important part of your play this week. And it beats you into going for flags that you shouldn’t go for. So, it’s about being very disciplined with your approach play. … It’s about hitting greens. It’s about playing to the fat part of the green, being somewhat conservative.”
None of that really jibes with being Rory McIlroy. Well, at least not the version that came here the first 10 times or so. That version didn’t arrive with a wife and kids. That version didn’t have the comfort of $60 million in career earnings or passing the time during Masters week drawing on a chalkboard with Poppy.
“It’s just a matter of going out there and executing your game plan the way you know that you can and be patient and be disciplined and all the things you need to do around Augusta National,” McIlroy said.
“I think that’s what wins you Masters. You see the highlights of people hitting heroic golf shots around here, but that’s just one golf shot. The rest of the time, they’re doing the right things and being patient and being disciplined, and that’s what wins you green jackets.”
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