Rory McIlroy never found his game in Augusta and failed. It's been 12 years since Rory McIlroy crashed at the Masters. I have my own rather unique memory of him. I happened to be in Malaysia covering a Formula One race for Telegraph Sport when McIlroy, then 21 years old and leading the nine-hole tournament before playing the last round, hooked his tee shot in 10th to a point, which is not usually shown on television. spectators between Peek and Berckmans booths.
This was the beginning of a brutal unraveling that continues to haunt McIlroy to this day. But what happened next turned out to be quite accidental for me from a journalistic point of view. Rather than spend a few days licking his wounds and spending some time with his family, which would be understandable, McIlroy decided to fly 30 hours across 12 time zones to Kuala Lumpur to fulfill his promise to play. at the Malaysian Open. I changed my flight after the Grand Prix to announce the arrival of the Northern Irishman and the press conference he gave to about five reporters, including the New Straits Times and The Malay Mail, at the Kuala Lumpur Golf Country Club. /p>
McIlroy never shied away from his duties. He always stepped forward and flaunted himself. I remember being struck at that press conference by how rude and vulnerable he was. And how defiant.
“Obviously when you travel this way, you have a lot of time to think,” he told us of his flight (during which his clubs went AWOL to rub salt in his wounds). “I led that 63-hole golf tournament. Everyone will have bad days. I just had the most important day of my career. But I'm a very positive person and I know I'll get through it. I know that I will learn it. When I get back to that position, if I really learned from it, it won't happen again.”
Twelve years later, McIlroy is still waiting for his first Greenjacket. It can hardly be believed, and yet somehow we are here.
McIlroy had time by his side after his 2011 debacle, but so many Masters chances have come and gone. Photo: Matt Slocum/AP
What is holding him back? It is clear that the problem is not technical. McIlroy's swing remains a dream. He still hits the ball for a mile. He is still young at 33. It is true that the game has let him down in the past. But even this cannot explain his sorcery with the Masters; slow starts, bad rounds once in a dispute, sensational rounds when the pressure is off.
The problem must be psychological. McIlroy bounced back from that first Masters flop in 2011 and won the US Congressional Open just two months later with eight strokes, setting numerous records in the process. By the age of 25, he had won three more major tournaments.
But more than eight and a half years have passed since the last of them, his victory in the PGA championship in Valhalla. And a career grand slam — that sacred achievement achieved by just five players in the game's history: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — seems as far away as ever.
Predicting that «this year will be McIlroy's year» has become the most doomed preview of sports journalists. The more his supporters support him in this — Woods himself said at the beginning of the week that McIlroy's victory in Augusta is «only a matter of time» — the farther it seems. The pressure built up over the years has become a huge burden. Nonstop conversations all winter, culminating when the Magnolia Lane hives come into view. It must be terrible for McIlroy.
This year the stars were even more aligned than usual. McIlroy played well, buffing up last year when the LIV Rebels broke away, becoming a totem figure for the PGA, winning tournaments and going big. Still, he hesitated.
Does McIlroy's long preparation for the Masters make his task more difficult? Credit: Getty Images/Christian Petersen
Where will McIlroy go? He knows what he needs to do to win another major, not only the Masters, but others as well. He is already working with mind coach Bob Rotella to try and free his mind. Perhaps he needs to change gurus.
Some will point to his Thursday interview and ask why he did it? Why get distracted in the middle of the biggest tournament of your year. But, of course, it was an example of McIlroy trying to do something different, to relax a little. This week, he talked about trying to emulate Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish teen tennis star, by dropping the shackles and playing without pressure. McIlroy can be forgiven for trying to do something right now.
Perhaps this will only happen when his game drops a little, and expectations — his own and ours — decrease. When he is not among the favorites of the pre-tournament. McIlroy still has plenty of time on his side. He and we must be patient. But it's hard to re-read the comments of this 21-year-old Malaysian who, despite jet lag and unruly hair that made him look like a hungover sixth grader, had so much hope.
«Basically, it was one hole, which destroyed it,” he recalled at the end of that press conference. “Well, didn’t spoil it because it was a great week and I will look back with fond memories of how I played. But the tee hit on 10 really blew my confidence. It was like, «Oh, where did that come from?» From there it just got out of control. I will definitely not let this happen again.”
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