Is Augusta National in Rory McIlroy’s Head?
We’re inching closer and closer to the first major of the 2018 PGA Tour season and for the fourth consecutive year, Rory McIlroy has the chance to capture the career grand slam at The Masters.
McIlroy, a four time major champion, has yet to capture that elusive green jacket that would let him join the company of Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods as the career grand slam winners of the Masters era. Of those five men, only Gene Sarazen clinched the career grand slam with a victory at Augusta National.
In 2011, McIlroy was just 18-holes away from capturing his first career major championship at The Masters. Entering Sunday, the Northern Irishman had a four stroke lead over the rest of the field and seemed to be well on his way to a victory. However, as he made the turn on Sunday everthing came undone and he watched his lead fly away. McIlroy started the back nine triple bogey-bogey-double bogey and watched his green jacket slide onto the shoulders of Charl Schwartzel, who finished with four consecutive birdies to secure his first major championship.
The crazy thing about McIlroy’s final round 80 in 2011 is that we’ve seen rounds similar to that a lot from him at Augusta National. Rory has played 34 rounds at Augusta dating back to 2009 and in six of those rounds he has shot 77 or worse. Now I know that the course isn’t a cake walk and that even the best of players are prone to having bad rounds, but shooting 5-over or worse 17% of the time for a guy with the talent of McIlroy seems a little bit odd.
Another weird part about it is the fact that these rounds are spread out over the years for the most part and they’re not something that seem to happen in the same tournament. Here’s a glimpse at his tournaments when he shot 77 or worse:
2010: 74–77 — missed cut
2011: 65–69–70–80
2012: 71–69–77–76
2013: 72–70–79–69
2014: 71–77–71–69
2016: 70–71–77–71
With the exception of the 2012 tournament where he went 77–76 on the weekend, McIlroy tends to have one major slip up each tournament and seems to play fine the rest of the way. Of course, you could probably blame course and weather conditions for a couple of these bad rounds, but not for all six of them.
His best finish at The Masters was in 2015 when he finished in 4th place. However, many people don’t remember much from that tournament aside from the fact that Jordan Spieth was setting records all over the place. Looking at the leaderboard would tell you that McIlroy performed well, which he did…over the last 45-holes. When Rory made the turn on Friday, he was sitting at +3 and in danger of missing the cut. If it weren’t for his 5-under back nine and his 10-under on the weekend, we’re looking at another below average performance at The Masters. Even in his best finish, there was something going on for a stretch of holes.
The question to ask is….Is Augusta National renting some prime real estate in Rory’s head?
When McIlroy is at the top of his game there is nobody in the world that is better than him. So why is he continually showing struggles at this course?
McIlroy seemingly can’t put it together and keep it together for 72-holes at Augusta National, which is really what you need to do to win the tournament. As we get closer to the start of the tournament on April 5th, we have to wonder if there is something in his head about this course.
The 2017 tournament saw him shoot 72–73–71–69, which was good enough for a T7 finish and overall was a really good showing. He has shown some recent success at the tournament, but his amount of high numbers at the tournament definitely raises some eyebrows.
Will this be the year Rory McIlroy finally captures the green jacket? Or will another high number derail his chances once again? Only 34 more days until we find out.
