Until he finally wins a green jacket, there will be no “flying under the radar” for Rory McIlroy at Augusta National for the rest of his playing career. No matter how much he wishes it weren’t the case, his quest for the career grand slam will remain the No. 1 storyline every April until it no longer is.
This was evident on an NBC conference call Tuesday featuring the full Golf Channel “Live From” desk of Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley. All but one or two questions revolved around McIlroy’s chances next week, and Chamblee and McGinley were happy to dive deep into each one.
Before any questions were asked, though, each show host gave an opening statement of sorts on their thoughts going into Augusta National. Chamblee wasted no time in reheating the incredible story of McIlroy watching “The Devil Wears Prada” the evening before the Players Championship Monday playoff, and using two characters from the film to describe the four-time major winner’s relationship with Augusta.
“To continue this Devil Wears Prada theme going a little bit further, I would say that Augusta National is the Miranda Priestly to Rory McIlroy’s Andrea Sachs,” Chamblee said. “It is literally his nemesis. It brings out the worst golf in Rory annually that we see. It was his worst golf last year in the majors, his worst the year before, two years before that it was his worst golf. He annually underperforms there. He hits on average about 42 greens. On average, the winner hits about 52. There are things about that golf course that have been very problematic for him.”
To a mere mortal, McIlroy’s Masters record looks sparkling. Seven top 10s in 16 appearances, including a runner-up and three other finishes inside the top five. But for the legendary figure McIlroy will undobutedly one day be (and arguably already is), it has been nothing but abject disappointment every April for the past 16 years. Heading into Sunday in 2011, it was not a matter of if he could finish one off, it was a matter of how many more Masters would he win once he was finished with this one. We all know what happened next, and it remains the one major that eludes him.
While Chamblee says he’s never felt Augusta is a perfect course fit for McIlroy’s game, he stated that the problems, particularly in the first round, seem more mental than physical.
“You can’t just act like this is any other golf tournament,” Chamblee said. “It is not like any other golf tournament. For a lot of the golf world, it is the single-most important four days they will have, so it’s not like every other golf tournament. But at the same time, you cannot allow yourself the luxury of looking ahead. Just look at the last six years, what Rory has done in the first round. The winner here averages sixth place after the first round. Rory has shot 71, 72, 73, 76, 75, 73 the last six years to begin the Masters. That’s mostly mental.”
It wasn’t all doom and gloom from Chamblee, however. In fact, he believes McIlroy has never entered Masters week playing better, and something he saw from the all-time great in Houston last week has him believing it could finally be his time.
“I will say, him switching to a softer ball I think really does give us a greater hope for his success there,” he said. “Because it’s forcing him to get on top of it, it’s forcing him to cover it. Paul McGinley has been talking about this a lot, he talked about it at the Players. Off camera, after our interview with Rory, he talked about it with the three of us.
“I talked to Curt Byrum, who followed his group at the Houston Open, and he said he’s on top of it, flighting down these wedge shots. That is the shot he needs at Augusta National. You’ve got to be able to sort of hold it off, trap it down, hit some cuts off hook lies and not hit that long left shot that has plagued him. Or the flare out to the right. So there’s reason for the golf world to be excited about the possibility, and again, from a competitive standpoint, he’s never gone into the Masters playing better or sharper.”
Unsurprisingly, McGinley is high on McIlroy as well. The former Ryder Cup captain believes a number of things are lining up for the Northern Irishman, namely the fact that he’s won two huge events with his B game already this year as well as the fact that a number of his adversaries, specifically Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, are not at the top of their games at the moment. The same could be said for LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, neither of whom have a win on the Saudi-backed tour in 2025.
Even McGinley admitted the mental hurdle is the biggest one, though.
“The biggest challenge for rory is the mental one,” said McGinley. “And I know that Bob Rotella has been a huge influence on him in the last 18 months and I think he’ll have him very well-prepared now. This is not his first rodeo going into the Masters working together. They’ve had two or three runs at this now, and I think they will be coming up with a plan in terms of taking that pressure and decimating it and putting it aside.”
While it feels like we’ve heard the same story for the better part of the last decade, it really does feel like things are all lining up for a McIlroy Masters coronation. That this year does feel different.
“There has never been a better week for him to win the Masters, never,” Chamblee added. “And look, we keep saying he’s got plenty of time, and he does, he’s 35. This is a golf course that bows a little bit to age and experience, and from a power standpoint, he’s never been more powerful, metaphorically and literally.
“It’s his if he takes care of business.”
