It was the tea heard all over the world. Rory McIlroy stood on the first tea on Augusta National, the open and inviting Fairway that spread before him. 51 times before at a major, the Northern Riary made the weekend, as often in the quarrel as the moving day begins; So often slip away at some point over the last 36 holes. In this last decade, every despair brought fresh doubt; Each almost miss that the scars further extend over the largest golf talent of his generation.
From label to equipment, Caddy to Coach, just about every aspect of McIlroy’s approach has been questioned in the 11-year-old drought-the curiosity that is a record-threatening career so far unfulfilled that needs a deep investigation. In Master’s Week, the investigation increases only; While the wardrobe and career Grand Slam remains incomplete, and until the green jacket is worn, it will remain.
Therefore, one would have forgiven McIlroy for some warning when he first pulled the driver off the bag. One can’t win the Masters on a Saturday, but you can definitely lose it – as McIlroy knows. A fantastic 66 Friday saw him move again, but it was a brilliant round that revealed vulnerabilities – a few Fairways missed, not all regulatory greens. It was certainly a time to play the percentages and play safe; Solid, rather than spectacular, to relieve around.
But it’s not McIlroy’s style. With the aim of draping the long bunker that draped the right edge of the Fairway at Tea Olive, McIlroy opened a statement of intention; The crack of the club through ball that puts a pep in his step as he further insists. There are certain golfers in the field who would not try to clean the bunker; For a hit of such competence and power, it barely took into account in his thinking.
371 meters later, McIlroy’s ball finally stopped; A gap -wig in, a short bird, the perfect beginning. Somehow it would get even better – the eagle landing at second place, the lead ensured with four more tries that followed. No golfer ever made three at the first six holes on Augusta; But this, for all his mistakes, is no other golfer. Come the end, the lead was two after McIlroy’s 66 – a duel again with his Pinehurst conquester Bryson DeChambeau, who found a miracle in the last momentum in Sunday.
The electric start enriched a fascinating Saturday to set up a master’s degree with narrative. Everywhere you looked at ‘Moving Day’ was stories to tell. Jason Day looks back at somewhere near his best and will have designs on another top ten. Justin Rose showed all his wild to stay with the next generation until his power began to juice. The debutant Matt McCarty was incompatible in an elevated company, but was unlikely in contact until the track was back.
But from the beginning there was a trio where the eye could not help to be drawn. In Scottie Scheffler, DeChambeau and McIlroy, golf has three men of contrasting character, but remarkable talent, each representing a string of the modern game. A victory for any of them would have meaning if the money and famous partner: Scheffler only becomes the fourth repeated here; McIlroy fifth place to complete a Grand Slam; Dechambeau hit a meaty blow for Liv Golf only when one was needed.
There would probably be varying fortunes, but McIlroy couldn’t have started faster. Dechambeau screamed at his coats with the kind of scurry he had to add to his game to compete here. Once a man with daring statements about how he could bash this course in shape, the American learned to appreciate his fraudulent contours and curves. Scheffler fooled for once and unable to get his game going after he did not turn an impeccable iron into the first green.
When McIlroy somehow saved a draw in the seventh way, it seemed to be one of that rounds. When it was, a shot came before the turn – but one of the lead that he cut off your hand to stand over the opening drive if you offered him a nine of 32 shots.
Until the turn, they went to say their prayers and then in Amen Corner, McIlroy on the back of another Bogey. A four-shot lead has become one. It felt a worryingly familiar story, and the worst time for a rush.
But McIlroy stabilized like others falter. Brash Bryson was short-lived in accuracy cost DeChambeau after being on a bleeding drive at 11 and 13, on either side of a bunker-equipped Bogey. Corey Conners has always offered the opposite approach, simple and safe, to stay among McIlroy’s closest challengers.
Still, the Northern Royer ascended again. A dooozy of an approach to 15 left him six feet for two more strokes; went into it. Only once before, he took two eagles in a single big round, and it ended in 2014 with a Claret Cup at Royal Liverpool.
A good sign? Maybe McIlroy is perhaps out of superstition. Of course, we have been here before. From Augusta to Pinehurst last year, history is educational, a tournament that is over, the presence of Dechambeau a repetitive motive. His excellent finish of the fringe benefits, Curling Home a Putt on the 18th, was over time as a tournament-turning moment. He is one of the few who can caress McIlroy, but the psychological struggle can be just as fascinating.
But from the first shot on Saturday, a measured McIlroy looked like a Masters winner in the guard – if not now, when?
Masters -Ranks to the third round
-12 Rory McIlroy (66)
-10 Bryson DeChambeau (69)
-8 Corey Conners (70)
-6 Patrick Reed (69), Ludvig Aberg (69)
-5 Scottie Scheffler (72), Shane Lowry (72), Jason Day (71), Justin Rose (75)
