Rory McIlroy is joking about the Masters. While the subject can be considered somber to him, his mood is light.
Earlier this year, on the “Stick to Football” podcast, a show hosted by longtime stars of football (or soccer, if you prefer), co-host Ian Wright wanted to tell McIlroy about the “blokes” with the green jackets, otherwise known as members of the Masters’ host club (Augusta National), or past winners of the tournament. They were what he didn’t like about the event. They could get access to some spots on the grounds. And he couldn’t.
But Wright was quickly consoled.
“How do you think I feel?” McIlroy laughed.
“That’s the same.”
Indeed. From there, though, things got a little deeper. More revelatory.
They usually do when the talk is McIlroy and the Masters. He’s won golf’s other three majors — but never its first of the year. He’s been close on occasion — and he’s been done after two rounds during others, including last year. The podcast hosts started to dig.
What exactly is it about the Masters, they wondered. McIlroy called Augusta a cathedral. He said the greats have won there. He said the event’s more hyped up. The hosts expanded on that. Wright asked about pressure management — and McIlroy had a story.
He’d shot even-par during last year’s first round. He was OK. But on the first hole of the second round, he looked at a leaderboard.
And he believed he was sunk.
“I saw Brooks Koepka was coming up the 8th and there’s a big white scoreboard there, by the 8th green,” McIlroy said on the podcast, “and I saw that he had already got to 10 under and I’m even par, so I’m — but it’s only 19 holes into the tournament, but I’m there thinking, jeez, I’m 10 behind already, like I have to start pressing, when actually what’s worked best for me is I can’t control what he does, I can’t control the leaderboard and the worst thing I did that day was look at the leaderboard because if I hadn’t have known — the winning score ended up being 10 under, I think.
“So I thought I needed to get to 10 under in the space of like 18 or 27 holes when I actually could have said, OK, chill out, it’s fine, you know, go and play your normal game, see where you’re at. But I think whenever I’ve gotten into trouble, especially at that tournament, is when I start looking around and I’m like, oh, he’s doing this and I should be there and you start putting the pressure on yourself.”
