Page 42 - Golf World (February 2020)
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20 questions
Nine long years will have champion.” The problem is that the longer the
passed since Rory McIlroy wait, the harder it becomes. “I think with each and
plucked defeat from the jaws every year that passes that I don’t [win], it will
of victory at Augusta become increasingly more difficult.”
National, that final day Looking positively, Rory enters 2020 in the
implosion in April 2011 form of his life – his stats across the board showing
seeing the 21-year-old blow a a player firing on almost all cylinders. Even the
four-shot lead to finish nowhere. He cried that short game that has often undermined his Augusta
night but he will have been consoled by the fact he assaults is in good shape.
had his career ahead of him and opportunity would Psychologists talk of a need to focus on
come knocking again. Nine years later, Rory performance over outcome. “This helps them stay
McIlroy is now 30 and the opportunities have in the moment and just do what is required right
knocked but gone unanswered: a 4th, a T7, a T5. then,” says sports psychologist Dr Josephine Perry.
With the three other majors in the bag, the Masters “When their focus is on the result, their head has
is all that stands between McIlroy and the Grand already left the course and they may make poor
Slam, golfing immortality. But the Masters has decisions and lose focus.”
become a problem. The one that will not come. Easy for some, perhaps, less so for Rory. “I am
At 30, Rory could feasibly have another 15 solid – ask anyone who knows me – a complete prick in
shots at the green jacket ahead of him – good odds the week leading up to Augusta,” he said in 2017.
for a man of his ability, with a game that appears “But they understand and know that. It’s stressful.”
perfectly suited to the challenges of Augusta It’s hardly now or never for a player of McIlroy’s
National, with the booming right-to-left drives undoubted ability, a man in the peak years of his
and towering irons. Alas, the scar tissue of 2011 life. But as a man at the peak of his powers, going
runs deep and the law of diminishing returns into Augusta with a game in rude health, it’s
comes into play. “I feel like I’m a good enough impossible not to worry that if he doesn’t get it
player,” said McIlroy after a T10 in 2016. “I feel done this time, it won’t ever get an easier. Rory knows
like I’ve got everything I need to become a Masters that, which might be the biggest problem of all.
42 Golf World February 2020 | golfworldtop100.com
