Gavin Cooney
reports from Augusta National Golf Club
THE LAST OF the Thursday morning chill at Augusta National had been burned away by the milky sun as Rory McIlroy emerged from the clubhouse for perhaps the least daunting walk to the Masters first tee of his career.
But as the patrons slipped off their jackets and slathered on sunscreen, McIlroy might have felt a breeze around his shoulders, given he had finally been forced to part with his green jacket.
Still, those chilled shoulders have never swung so easily around this place.
The question to be answered: would the end of McIlroy’s epic Masters longing leave him liberated to chase for more or lethargic amid the soak of grand acclaim?
He began by moving toward those doing the acclaiming, pulling his drive left and into the second cut. “I’m tired and need to sit down, and then this guy goes and hits it left,” grinned a not-so-cranky patron as he stumbled out of his folding green chair.
“I bet you a buck he doesn’t make the green,” croaked another patron as McIlroy sized up his shot. He finally found a taker for his bet at 2/1. McIlroy drew his shot around a tree and saw it land on the right side of the green’s front before rolling down the slope. “That buck’s mine” came the rejoinder from our freelance bookie.
McIlroy got up and down but then went miles right on the second, the ball landing like an extraterrestrial behind a gaggle of unsuspecting patrons on the pine straw. Amid loud inquests as to whose ball had just landed among them, one confidently proclaimed it Rory’s.
“How d’ya see that!?” said one patron with a kind of wonder.
Advertisement
“The ball says RORS. Bit of a giveaway.”
McIlroy hitting out of the pinestraw on the second hole. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
McIlroy snapped his shot out of the straw and left of the green, and yet he still managed to get up and down for a first birdie of the day. No longer chasing the Grand Slam, McIlroy now has the luxury of patience. On the third, his drive came to a rest in the second cut to the front left of the towering green, and so McIlroy flipped a pitch shot to the back of the green for the safety of a two-putt par. He left that second putt agonisingly short, with the ball clinging to the edge of the hole as McIlroy put his hands on his hips and stared at his ball, daring it to drop. It refused and he took a first bogey.
But again he didn’t feel the need to go chasing. He took the safety first approach on the par-three fourth: heart of the green, two-putt for par. The feats of escapology continued on five: he was left off the tee and caught behind a tree from the second cut.
“We’re gonna be on TV,” whispered a patron when he saw McIlroy bounding towards the ball in front of him, puffing out his cheeks as he was again forced to survey a couple of branches around him.
McIlroy then sized up the shot, looked at Harry Diamond and said, “front right of the green’ll be alright”. He then whipped the ball around the tree, twirled his club and leaped up to the fairway to see the ball stop on the front left of the green. This is the magic of Masters serenity: one can appear totally in control even when one is not.
McIlroy made another easy up-and-down for par on six, before going so far right from the seventh tee that he ended up on the 17th fairway. No matter: he stuck his approach to the flag and then got up and down for another clean par.
He was slightly right again on eight, giving a wry smile when he found his ball had skipped into the second cut. Having been forced to dawdle over the ball for an age with play concertinaing ahead, McIlroy was finally let loose to spear a three-wood through the air to within 24 feet of the hole. He made birdie, and he then found his first fairway of the day on nine, which led to a textbook birdie.
McIlroy was the star attraction, chased around the property by stars from all ends of the sporting firmament, including Rob Kearney and Rafael Nadal, who scurried down the left of the 10th fairway like a man late for mass.
There followed Amen Corner: McIlroy’s putter was sufficiently solid to steer himself to the 13th with a series of pars. Again he went right, but this time, having laid up to the front of the creek, he managed to clear it. The crowds flocking to see the reigning champ did not include the ghosts of last year’s melodrama.
Related Reads
Rory McIlroy shares the early clubhouse lead after helter-skelter 67 at Augusta
McIlroy reeled off birdies on 13, 14, and 15, and came home without dropping another shot, stepping back into the clubhouse in a tie for the lead. His 67 was the second-best opening round of his Masters career, bettered only by the 65 he shot ahead of his day of original sin in 2011. Thursday has ordinarily been the day on which he has previously played his way out of contention, perhaps in a kind of pre-emptive strike against the weight of another three days of expectation.
This was instead a day of giddy escapology; a round across which McIlroy could finally transmute his Masters pain into mere information.
“There is a certain freedom,” he said after this curiously confident yet helter-skelter round.
“If I hit it in the trees it’s okay: I will go figure it out. I have seen it all over the last 18 years.
“I think I swung freely even when I was missing tee shots on the front nine, I kept swinging and didn’t get tentative or guide-y, hoping that I would find it, and I did: I strung some good swings together from the eighth hole and then played some good golf.”
This is another happy consequence of McIlroy finding agreeing terms with his Masters dreams: now he can trust this tournament to strike a compromise and so does not need to chase nor get reckless.
McIlroy said afterwards that a fairer score for his inaccuracy off the tee would have been a two-under 70 and acknowledged there is a long way to go. So while we do not know what is to come over the next three days, we know this: Rory McIlroy is unburdened and dangerous.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Rory McIlroy is unburdened and dangerous
THE LAST OF the Thursday morning chill at Augusta National had been burned away by the milky sun as Rory McIlroy emerged from the clubhouse for perhaps the least daunting walk to the Masters first tee of his career.
But as the patrons slipped off their jackets and slathered on sunscreen, McIlroy might have felt a breeze around his shoulders, given he had finally been forced to part with his green jacket.
Still, those chilled shoulders have never swung so easily around this place.
The question to be answered: would the end of McIlroy’s epic Masters longing leave him liberated to chase for more or lethargic amid the soak of grand acclaim?
He began by moving toward those doing the acclaiming, pulling his drive left and into the second cut. “I’m tired and need to sit down, and then this guy goes and hits it left,” grinned a not-so-cranky patron as he stumbled out of his folding green chair.
“I bet you a buck he doesn’t make the green,” croaked another patron as McIlroy sized up his shot. He finally found a taker for his bet at 2/1. McIlroy drew his shot around a tree and saw it land on the right side of the green’s front before rolling down the slope. “That buck’s mine” came the rejoinder from our freelance bookie.
McIlroy got up and down but then went miles right on the second, the ball landing like an extraterrestrial behind a gaggle of unsuspecting patrons on the pine straw. Amid loud inquests as to whose ball had just landed among them, one confidently proclaimed it Rory’s.
“How d’ya see that!?” said one patron with a kind of wonder.
“The ball says RORS. Bit of a giveaway.”
McIlroy snapped his shot out of the straw and left of the green, and yet he still managed to get up and down for a first birdie of the day. No longer chasing the Grand Slam, McIlroy now has the luxury of patience. On the third, his drive came to a rest in the second cut to the front left of the towering green, and so McIlroy flipped a pitch shot to the back of the green for the safety of a two-putt par. He left that second putt agonisingly short, with the ball clinging to the edge of the hole as McIlroy put his hands on his hips and stared at his ball, daring it to drop. It refused and he took a first bogey.
But again he didn’t feel the need to go chasing. He took the safety first approach on the par-three fourth: heart of the green, two-putt for par. The feats of escapology continued on five: he was left off the tee and caught behind a tree from the second cut.
“We’re gonna be on TV,” whispered a patron when he saw McIlroy bounding towards the ball in front of him, puffing out his cheeks as he was again forced to survey a couple of branches around him.
McIlroy then sized up the shot, looked at Harry Diamond and said, “front right of the green’ll be alright”. He then whipped the ball around the tree, twirled his club and leaped up to the fairway to see the ball stop on the front left of the green. This is the magic of Masters serenity: one can appear totally in control even when one is not.
McIlroy made another easy up-and-down for par on six, before going so far right from the seventh tee that he ended up on the 17th fairway. No matter: he stuck his approach to the flag and then got up and down for another clean par.
He was slightly right again on eight, giving a wry smile when he found his ball had skipped into the second cut. Having been forced to dawdle over the ball for an age with play concertinaing ahead, McIlroy was finally let loose to spear a three-wood through the air to within 24 feet of the hole. He made birdie, and he then found his first fairway of the day on nine, which led to a textbook birdie.
McIlroy was the star attraction, chased around the property by stars from all ends of the sporting firmament, including Rob Kearney and Rafael Nadal, who scurried down the left of the 10th fairway like a man late for mass.
There followed Amen Corner: McIlroy’s putter was sufficiently solid to steer himself to the 13th with a series of pars. Again he went right, but this time, having laid up to the front of the creek, he managed to clear it. The crowds flocking to see the reigning champ did not include the ghosts of last year’s melodrama.
McIlroy reeled off birdies on 13, 14, and 15, and came home without dropping another shot, stepping back into the clubhouse in a tie for the lead. His 67 was the second-best opening round of his Masters career, bettered only by the 65 he shot ahead of his day of original sin in 2011. Thursday has ordinarily been the day on which he has previously played his way out of contention, perhaps in a kind of pre-emptive strike against the weight of another three days of expectation.
This was instead a day of giddy escapology; a round across which McIlroy could finally transmute his Masters pain into mere information.
“There is a certain freedom,” he said after this curiously confident yet helter-skelter round.
“If I hit it in the trees it’s okay: I will go figure it out. I have seen it all over the last 18 years.
“I think I swung freely even when I was missing tee shots on the front nine, I kept swinging and didn’t get tentative or guide-y, hoping that I would find it, and I did: I strung some good swings together from the eighth hole and then played some good golf.”
This is another happy consequence of McIlroy finding agreeing terms with his Masters dreams: now he can trust this tournament to strike a compromise and so does not need to chase nor get reckless.
McIlroy said afterwards that a fairer score for his inaccuracy off the tee would have been a two-under 70 and acknowledged there is a long way to go. So while we do not know what is to come over the next three days, we know this: Rory McIlroy is unburdened and dangerous.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Golf swinging free The Masters