Rory McIlroy’s back-breaking Masters blunder, explained

Rory McIlroy’s Masters got off to a dream start. Through 14 holes, he’d made four birdies and 10 pars. At four-under par standing on the 15th tee, his quest to end his nightmarish major drought was heading in the right direction.

With the reachable par-5 in front of him, McIlroy attacked the hole to perfection. He bombed his drive down the middle of the fairway — 294 yards, to be exact — and left himself 241 to the pin. From there, he grabbed a long iron and smashed a towering shot at the flagstick. The ball cleared the water and pitched pin high, bounding just over the green to leave him an up-and-down away from reaching five under.

As we all know by now, that didn’t quite happen. Instead of chipping his ball down the slope to makable birdie range, McIlroy hit his next shot through the green and into the water. What looked like an easy birdie turned into a double bogey.

Those watching at home might think McIlroy simply hit the chip shot too hard to keep it on the green. And while that’s partially true, the real reason his ball did not stay dry was a crucial error in the type of shot he attempted to play.

Rory’s crucial mistake

The chip shot from long of the 15th green is much tougher than it looks on TV. The putting surface pitches severely from back to front and has a crown bisecting the green. But what makes the shot all the more difficult is the way the grass grows, also known as the grain.

The grain behind this particular green grows away from the green. Why does this matter? Well, it changes the types of shots you can hit and how much spin you can put on the ball. With the grain growing into the player — like it was here for McIlroy — you cannot putt the ball because it would carry too much pace once it reached the green. You also can’t hit the ball high with spin because the grain makes clipping the shot correctly nearly impossible.

Short Game

The only shot players can hit that will hold the green is what Parker McLachlin — aka The Shot Game Chef — calls a “bump-and-check.” Earlier this week, we caught up with the GOLF Teacher to Watch and he highlighted this exact shot as one that players needed to have in their bag to be successful around Augusta.

“Think about long of No. 15,” he said. “You’ve got to bump it into the hill, but it can’t be a bump-and-run. If it is, it’ll roll off into the water on the other side. And you can’t hit it high and stop it because you’re into the grain and you can’t spin it as much and landing on a downslope. So you have to hit a bump with a little check.”

If you watch McIlroy’s shot, you can see he does not hit the bump-and-check. Instead of bumping the ball into the slope to take off some speed, he hit it a little higher and landed the ball on the green. But with the grain growing into him (and with the shot landing on a downslope) the ball did not have near enough spin to slow it enough to keep it on the green.

The shot is a tough one to execute — even for the best players in the world — but it’s one that’s necessary if you want to contend at Augusta. McIlroy did not choose to bring it out in the most crucial moment on Thursday, and the decision cost him dearly. After carding double bogey on the par-5, he added another double on 17 to fall all the way back to even par.

If McIlroy once again does not go on to win the green jacket, we can point to his execution from behind the green on 15 as the place where it all started to unravel.