One of the most vexing questions in golf comes up every April: Why can’t Rory McIlroy win the Masters?
He is the best player of the post-Tiger Woods era. He holds every other major, along with almost every major award. He is a threat to win every tournament he plays. And yet, for whatever reason, he never closed the deal at Augusta.
He was very close, very close. Back in 2011, he made Sunday’s turn in the lead, but immediately shot himself out of the tournament. On Sundays at Augusta, he was charged from deep in the field, and he was in the last pairing, and in each case he failed. From 2014, he has seven top-10 finishes, including four top-five finishes. He missed the cut in two of the last three years, including 2023, but he remains one of the betting favorites every year.
So with so many bites at the apple, why can’t McIlroy win? Psychologists outside the ropes examine this mystery every April, but in a new episode of Golf Magazine’s subpar podcastMcIlroy opened up about his struggles at Augusta … and they’re rooted in exactly what you’d expect.
“I thought sometimes because it was the one I didn’t win, the only thing I thought about that week was winning it,” McIlroy said. “And that’s not the way to approach a golf tournament.” He noted that, due to the circumstances surrounding the Masters, he never prepared the same way for that tournament as he did for literally every other tournament on the slate.
“I just felt at Augusta that I was too results-oriented early on,” he said, “instead of just going into the tournament, playing my fight like I do in other tournaments, and going from there.”
He used this year’s tournament as an example of how he spends hours looking at the big Augusta National leaderboards (“You can’t miss them, they’re everywhere”) and letting the red numbers roll in. in his head too early.
“This year, Brooks [Koepka] got off to a really hot start, and he was on the 8th green on Friday morning, and I was on the 1st green,” McIlroy said. “And I think I’m the same for the tournament, and Brooks bag- or just birdied the 8th. to go to 10-under for the tournament, so I had 10 shots and I already felt like I had to chase and I had to, like, do something.
The Masters’ position on the golf calendar – the first major of the year – allows for months of build-up, and months of “Can Rory win it. IT year?” questions. The Masters is the only remaining achievement for McIlroy to complete a career Grand Slam – Woods, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen have managed that feat – and literally in remaining in his career, the question of whether he can win will follow him in every Masters.
“I was probably in my head a little too much around there sometimes,” McIlroy said. “But there are other times where I manage it OK and I have good results.” The problem for McIlroy is, at this point even finishing in second place isn’t enough. And next April, the questions will start again.