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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Back when each Masters week was a series of why-nots and how-comes, when all Rory McIlroy could be asked was what the problem was, golf’s greatest luminaries offered messages of support that only made it worse.
“No question, he’ll do it at some point,” Tiger Woods said two days before the 2024 Masters. “He’s just — Rory’s too talented, too good.”
“There’s no golf course that suits a man better than it does for Rory,” said Gary Player a year later.
It turns out, all the expectations on McIlroy were absolutely right. It just happened later than everybody planned. The loose, pressure-free version of McIlroy is taking over Augusta National this week, bending the most iconic venue in golf to his will at 12 under par, six shots ahead of Sam Burns and Patrick Reed. It’s a record for the largest 36-hole lead.
A year removed from his epic, demon-exorcising victory to complete the career Grand Slam, McIlroy shot a tournament-best 65 on Friday with nine birdies, including a 31 on the back. He is seeking to become the fourth man to win back-to-back Masters, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.
Through all of the pain and torment, through 16 years of missed chances and the rollercoaster Sunday that pushed his sanity to the brink, perhaps McIlroy compiled a singular understanding of Augusta National. While we — and he — saw each year through the lens of defeat, maybe a database was being built that cannot be compared.
“Rory might win every year,” Fred Couples said Friday. “I said that yesterday. I mean, he really could win five more of these.”
Rory McIlroy slaps hands with caddie Harry Diamond during the second round. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
It warrants the reminder that McIlroy went to a playoff last year at 11-under despite four double bogeys, something nobody has ever done. So he played the other 68 holes at Augusta National at 19 under par, just one shy of Dustin Johnson’s scoring record at the fall 2020 Masters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was getting past myself,” McIlroy said Friday. “It was staying aggressive. Like my little mantra to myself today was ‘keep swinging. Keep swinging hard at it even if you’re not hitting fairways, just keep swinging.’”
A week before the 2025 Masters, McIlroy sat down with six-time winner Nicklaus and went through the course shot by shot to determine how he planned to play it. It clearly worked. Before the first round this year, Nicklaus whispered in his ear, “No f—ing double bogeys.”
McIlroy said he also spent more time than ever at Augusta National this year, including playing practice rounds, filming for his Amazon Prime documentary, and attending last weekend’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur. He said that on multiple occasions, he took his daughter Poppy to school, hopped on a plane, played a round, flew back home and still had dinner with his wife, Erica, and Poppy.
“I’ve prepared as well for this Masters as any other that I’ve played,” he said. “I think all that work around the greens over the last three weeks has certainly paid off over the last two days.”
McIlroy entered Friday with a share of the lead, but he quickly birdied No. 2 with a perfect iron shot, hit a spinny chip up onto 3, and hit a 22-foot putt on 4 to immediately take a solo three-shot lead.
While he dipped back with bogeys on 5 and 10, he swiftly conquered Amen Corner. His approach to the famous No. 12 went to seven feet for birdie. Despite missing the fairway on 13, he laid up and pitched close for another birdie. A winding 10-foot putt on 15 brought another, before his dart on 16 was the third closest of the week.
But perhaps it was his 29-yard chip-in on 17 that sealed the notion that this is his week. Everything is coming up McIlroy right now.
