Rory McIlroy started his champion’s press conference at the Masters not with a response, but with a query.
Speaking to the hundreds of sportswriters who have been writing about his pro career for the past 17 years, he opened his arms in his new green jacket and asked: “What are we going to write about next year?”For all these years, the dominant storyline before many Masters tournaments has been that this is Rory’s year.
This week, and given that he had made his career-best start to a PGA Tour season, it seemed like this was going to be McIlroy’s year.But every time someone else considered this going to be his time, it only heightened the pressure on the man who has famously fought his own demons.”You’ve had Jack (Nicklaus), Gary (Player), Tom (Watson), Tiger (Woods), you name them, all pass through here and tell you that I’ll win The Masters one day,” he said.
“These are my idols, and it’s quite flattering that they think I can win this tournament and get the grand slam,” he laughed. “But it doesn’t work! I wish they wouldn’t say it!”McIlroy’s nickname is Rors, he inscribes it in all capital letters on each golf ball that he tees off from, and the roar that exploded from his chest when he rolled in the winning putt on Sunday was bestial.”There wasn’t much pleasure in that response,” he said. “It was all relief. It was a decade plus of bottled-up emotion that spilled out of me.”
The fans who saw the wave of emotions sweep McIlroy off his ground on the 18th green knew precisely why he was so overwhelmed; they could comprehend why his body knelt on the ground, gasping and thrashing.The Masters is the only one of the four majors that is staged on the same course annually, and many who were attending here today would have seen his infamous meltdown in 2011, when McIlroy lost a commanding third-round lead.His meltdown was so dramatic that he went from standing alone at the top as he turned for the final round on Sunday, to coming in in a tie for 15th position.By the time he returned to the clubhouse, the eager crowd had abandoned him, the reporters who followed McIlroy every step of the way that day have called the experience funereal.
He’s spent the past 14 years since that day attempting to redeem himself, and the past 11 years attempting to join the legends of the game – Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Player, Nicklaus and Woods as the only men in the modern era to have won all four major championships and achieved the career slam.
Those clients were aware of and appreciated McIlroy’s path and the psychological abuse he’s had to endure since, and he knew that with each passing year, it would become increasingly more difficult to eventually prevail.
When asked by CNN Sports whether he would go back in time to that 2011 night to talk to himself, what he would see and what he would tell him, he hesitated to create both his thoughts and his feelings.
“I would look at a young man that didn’t really know a lot about the world,” he explained. “A young man that had a lot of learning to do and a lot of growing up to do. In 2011, I didn’t realize why I got myself into a great position and I didn’t realize why I let it get away from me.”.
“I would tell him, ‘Just stick to it, just keep believing.’ And I would tell that to any little girl or boy listening to this. I’ve actually made my dreams a reality today, and I would tell them, ‘Believe in your dreams, and if you work hard enough and put the effort in, you can do anything you want.'”
But Sunday’s tale was about so much more than the historic achievement.
It was more than four hours of heart-stopping tension and one of the most remarkable sporting spectacles to be seen in recent memory.McIlroy confesses that he was first overwhelmed by the moment. He stated that he was “unbelievably nervous” in the morning, that his legs were jelly on the first tee, he had a knot in his stomach and his appetite had abandoned him to the extent that he had to force his food down.His mindset came out with a catastrophic beginning, as his two-shot lead was gone at once with a double bogey.
At almost any other stage in his recent career, this would have been a fatal blunder, but he claimed to have felt that the early error actually steadied him. But there were other moments of lunacy, another double bogey on 13 appeared to take him off the rails altogether.Even his playing companion Bryson DeChambeau, who had started the day in contention himself, remarked that he felt like crying for McIlroy when his ball went into Rae’s Creek.
On a number of occasions during the afternoon, McIlroy visibly collapsed under the unbearable pressure of expectation, and he at times appeared to be on the point of tears.And yet, he continued to bounce back, defying anyone who lost hope and gave up on him, delivering a string of daring career-defining shots to remain in the fight.
“My fight today was with myself,” he said. “It wasn’t with anyone else.”But even when it appeared as though he’d ridden out his own internal storm, another blunder on the 72nd hole threatened to drown him for good.
His Ryder Cup partner Justin Rose had been unofficially destroying the course with six birdies on the back nine, coming roaring back into contention from seven back, so McIlroy now had to navigate a jittery playoff.
But again, he regained his poise, making a birdie putt on the first hole of extras to capture his most elusive title, securing his place in the annals and finishing one of the most extraordinary and emotional story lines in all of sports.
Sarazen, Hogan and Woods had achieved the grand slam in their first go, Nicklaus and Player in theirs third, but McIlroy had endured a decade of attempts before finally achieving it on his 11th attempt. And not just that, he also became the first player to win the green jacket in Masters history having recorded four double bogies over the course of the tournament.
Some writers had pre-touted the day by announcing that it would be the scariest round of golf of his existence, and after its conclusion, he couldn’t help but agree.
“It was one of my most difficult days I’ve ever had on the golf course,” he agreed. “I didn’t make it easy today, I definitely didn’t make it easy. There was moments I thought, ‘Have I let this slip again? ‘ But I reacted with clutch shots when I needed to and I’m really proud of myself for that.”.
It’s been a draining week emotionally, lots of rollercoaster rounds, and just so, you know, totally stoked to be the last man standing.”
For as one author wisecracked to CNN, McIlroy’s demons had run out of holes – because, obviously, he still has issues to battle with in his head. Whatever he had done, however, “Rors” has finally won to enter a club so rare that no one even considered referencing the $4.2 million prize.
It’s a shame that the history books won’t be able detail the emotional chaos of the last five hours of his odyssey to ascend to the pantheon of greats because it truly was one of the most titanic days in sports.Who knows what we’ll talk about at the Masters next year, but that will surely be hard to beat!
