It has been a busy week for Rory McIlroy. He was in place at the annual Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship over the weekend to hand out prizes to young winners. He conducted some early Masters media duties. He has been preparing to host Tuesday night’s champions’ dinner, featuring elk sliders and yellowfin tuna carpaccio inspired by his favourite New York restaurant, where the admission ticket is a Green Jacket.
McIlroy returns to Augusta National as a hero, the man who conquered the grand-slam mountain, finally admitted into that exclusive club of great champions with Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Danny Willett. But he also returns with duties to undertake. When you come back the following year – and especially when you’re McIlroy – you are not so much a golfer as an ambassador for the uniquely cultish world of The Masters.
Which perhaps goes some way to explaining why the Green Jacket is so hard to win again the next year. Three players have managed it: Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Woods (2001-02). But they are the exceptions over the tournament’s 92-year lifetime. There is a pomp and ceremony that goes with being The Masters champion that no other player in the field has to deal with.
Fold in the recent back injury that has clearly been bothering McIlroy on the course, and his lack of form so far this season, and becoming the fourth man to win back-to-back Masters begins to look like a tall order.
“I think it’s off, to be honest,” says Paul McGinley, Europe’s winning Ryder Cup captain in 2014, when asked about the state of McIlroy’s game. “I don’t think he’s primed the way he was this time last year, coming off wins at The Players and Pebble Beach. Obviously, the injury has derailed him a little bit. I think it’s going to be very difficult, and it always is, to defend around Augusta.
“I think Rory’s concentration levels will be tested because of the activities that go on as the defending champion. Not just the dinner, but I think he’s going to be around wearing his Green Jacket around the property for a few days, earlier than he would normally do. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on as defending champion, and it’s a good problem to have, and I’m sure he’s delighted with it. But I don’t know if it’s going to drive him into a top-level performance.”
It would be understandable if McIlroy isn’t as motivated as he was 12 months ago. There is no decade-long major drought to soothe. There is no missing piece to his career puzzle. McIlroy has completed golf and the remaining task – to climb the list of major title winners – doesn’t bring out the same burning desire. He doesn’t need to stick it to Bryson DeChambeau over the coming days.
“He’s at his best when he’s p****d off,” says McGinley. “There’s no doubt that playing with Bryson in the last round last year helped him more than hurt him. And the reason it helped him was Bryson belittled him six months previously, when they did that made-for-TV event out in the desert somewhere [The Showdown] and he made a smart comment about Rory messing up at the US Open in order for Bryson to win. So Bryson really did him a favour, because he forced him into focus. He p****d him off, and got him in the mindset he needs to get in.
“And then I think the same with the Ryder Cup. His level of intensity at the Ryder Cup was phenomenal. If he could bring that intensity to every tournament he played, well, yeah, he would be Tiger Woods. But that’s not Rory.”
Instead, McIlroy has appeared free and easy back at Augusta, weightless, talking about his new documentary as he floats around the grounds. He has never been uncomfortable among the stiff traditions of The Masters, but he is perhaps the most relaxed he has ever been in these surroundings, certainly since his Sunday derailment in 2011.
That mentality can have its advantages, of course. “Augusta doesn’t let you fake it,” Phil Mickelson once said. You cannot pretend to be comfortable in this environment. The grass will be firm and fast this week. There will be no hiding place for a wayward approach or a heavy touch around the greens.
But McGinley is convinced this will be one of McIlroy’s hardest challenges, to go back to back, to repeat the feat of Nicklaus, Faldo and Woods. He who wears the Green Jacket carries the greatest burden, even if they might not feel it. For a player of such experience and accomplishment, this is a new experience in golf. Such are the demands of being last year’s winner, McIlroy won’t assume the role of defending champion until he stands on the first tee on Thursday.
“There’s a sense of pride, there’s a sense of happiness about you, there’s a sense of excitement,” adds McGinley. “You’re hosting this amazing dinner. You’re wearing a Green Jacket around the property. Everybody’s shaking your hand and is happy to see you. People want a bit of your time, and it lends itself to being in a great place as a human being.
“But I’d make a very strong case that that’s the opposite mindset you need in order to be a winner for the tournament that week.”
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