Augusta, Ga. – At this stage, we only have to blame when Rory McILroy launches our hopes in the Rae stream. We had a broken heart and our hopes broke so many times, whether in St. Andrews or Los Angeles or Pinehurst or here in Augusta.
We know that pulling for Rory to put an end to his unreasonable sequence of a decade, is bad for us, a vice who disguises himself by virtue. We swear that we finish with that – more Paris on McILroy to win, more pinning our emotional well -being on the most convincing player of the game today. We have finished, we swear, no matter how tempting the chances are.
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And then McILroy goes and rolls in amen corner at four sous, even with Scottie Scheffler, even with each player on the field except Justin Rose. We therefore respond to this text from our ex, we tell ourselves that we can leave at any time. We say, This time will be different. Really.
And McILroy answers by going four out of three holes, going from T2 to T27, from “in hunting” to “in hell”.
McILroy is a player so fascinating precisely because he is the most relatable player in the game today. To his best, he is a model for guaranteed excellence, but his best never seems to appear when he needs it most.
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Thursday, McILroy's game abandoned him precisely when he had the chance to fill the gap on pink, at the top of the ranking at 7 sous. McILroy was on the back downstream of the 15th par -5, at -4 per day, being two strokes on the hole. Not a perfect position, but a birdie was still well at hand.
And then McILroy struck the only one that he could absolutely not afford to do, pulling a high and warm chip, slipping the ball through the green and above the edge in the water which was heading on the 15th. A double Bogey followed.
Two holes later, on his approach to the 17th, he again struck the green and the ball slipped away from the rear slope, to the edge of the gallery. His putt by possible 34 feet put in six feet beyond the hole, and he has two ropes from there for another double bogey.
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Finally, as if Augusta National wanted to twist the brand knife for masters one last time, the Birdie de McILroy chip on 18 rolled a few centimeters to the right of the cup. A TAP-in later, and McILroy made another long walk at the end of the afternoon to the Augusta National Club-House.
Barely 11 hours earlier, no less an Augusta authority that Jack Nicklaus offered an analysis of McILroy's struggles which, retrospectively, are frightening on the target:
“The discipline is what Rory missed, in my opinion,” said Nicklaus. “He has all the shots. He has all the game. He is certainly as talented as anyone in the game. But if you look back, go back and see his story in recent years, it happens a lot (and then) an 8 or a 7 appears, and that prevents you from arriving where he has to go.”
There are a lot of players between McILroy, who finished with a peer 72, and where he has to go this week. Twenty-six players are in front of him in the ranking, and 10 others are linked with him. It is a massive task in all circumstances, but with the weight of the story that is looming in each pine, it seems damn impossible.
Rory McILroy, from Northern Ireland, left the 18th green after the first round at the Masters golf tournament, Thursday April 10, 2025, in Augusta, Ga. (AP photo / George Walker IV)
(Associated Press)
It should be noted that the emotional roller coaster mountains that fans of McILroy, golf and history lead each time Rory is in the mixture to a major is nothing compared to what he has to suffer. McILroy refused to speak to the media after his round, but he tried to put his sorrow in context earlier this week, explaining how he could happen after so many evisceating disappointments.
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“Once you have crossed this, once you have crossed these sorrows, as I call them, or disappointments, you arrive in a place where you remember what it is and you wake up the next day and you are, yes, life continues, it's not as bad as I thought,” he said on Tuesday. “Life is progressing. You dust yourself and go back. “
McILroy will resume Friday at 9:58 am if the story is a guide, he will fight for this purpose, and his game will try to believe again. Continue at your own risk and eyes wide open.
