Rory McIlroy’s Masters key is something learned in past major heartbreaks

In June of 2023, Rory McIlroy walked to the podium at Los Angeles Country Club with the anguish of defeat on his face. He had just come up one shot short at the 2023 U.S. Open as an ill-timed poor wedge shot and an ice-cold putter cost him a chance to snap his major drought.

“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet,” McIlroy said that Sunday in Los Angeles. “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”

That was 11 months after Cameron Smith tracked him down on Sunday at the 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews. It was 12 months before a mental lapse cost him the 2024 U.S. Open in an agonizing defeat at Pinehurst No. 2.

“I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”

Of course, it wasn’t always like this for Rory McIlroy at major championships. The disappointments were once scarce. The heartbreak contained to a singular scar under the surface of a blossoming career. The fear of pain was once something that rarely, if ever, crossed his mind.

Those were the days when Rory McIlroy was a supernova prodigy — a long-bombing wunderkind fueled by the invincibility of youth.

He had an early slip-up at the 2010 PGA Championship before the 2011 Masters meltdown that still scars him. But the Northern Irishman appeared to flush it quickly, romping over the field at the next major to win the 2011 U.S. Open. The following year, he rolled at Kiawah Island to win the 2012 PGA Championship. Two years later, he captured the Open Championship and another PGA. He was 25 and on a golf rocket ship to a major championship stratosphere that few inhabit.

It’s a voyage that stalled and has remained frozen in place for a decade.

Rory McIlroy is now 35, with grey hair on his temples and the weather of experience etched into his brow. He has achieved monumental things in golf, and yet, he has not been able to grasp what he most covets again. It’s the paradox of being Rory McIlroy. Every achievement he secures raises questions about what he hasn’t accomplished.

McIlroy is back at Augusta National this week for his 11th swing at the career grand slam. He’s playing the best golf in the world and statistically is a more complete golfer than at any point in his storied career.

There’s every reason to believe this time McIlroy will finally exorcise his demons at a course that is both a haven and a constant reminder of what could have been.

But if he is to conquer Augusta National, it will take more than perfectly-controlled irons, an immaculate short game and rare driving ability.

To win, McIlroy will have to lean on a lesson he learned years ago when he would arrive at major championships and play not to fail. With the naivete of youth shed, McIlroy shielded himself from what might happen instead of putting himself out there to embrace what could happen.

Since 2019, McIlroy has decided to no longer be concerned with the pain that four days at major championships might bring. Being close is excruciating, but he now knows he won’t achieve what he wants if he’s afraid to fall.

The only way to summit the mountain is to focus everything on the climb.

News

“I think it’s a self-preservation mechanism,” McIlroy said Tuesday at Augusta National. “It’s just more of a thing where you’re trying to not put 100 percent of yourself out there because of that. It happens in all walks of life. At a certain point in someone’s life, someone doesn’t want to fall in love because they don’t want to get their heart broken. People, I think, instinctually as human beings, we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that’s a conscious decision or subconscious decision, and I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years.

“But I think once you go through that, once you go through those heartbreaks, as I call them, or disappointments, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you’re like, yeah, life goes on, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be. And I think it’s going through those times, especially in recent memory, where the last few years I’ve had chances to win some of the biggest golf tournaments in the world, and it hasn’t quite happened. But life moves on. You dust yourself off and you go again.”

The year started with McIlroy discussing how he planned to emulate Scottie Scheffler’s course management. Wins at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass followed, making McIlroy’s Scheffler imitation a popular narrative.

On Tuesday, Scheffler was asked what he’d like to take from McIlroy’s game.

“Rory, I feel like has always been someone who’s played really freely,” Scheffler said. “All the times I’ve played with him, he swings it really hard off the tee, and I feel like he does a really good job of playing free and playing loose at times.”

That freedom, be it in a vicious swing with a driver or a confident walk after a birdie barrage, is the product of immense talent combined with being unburdened by the unknown.

Golf, like life, is filled with unknowns. There’s no predicting what the next swing or day will bring.

You just have to be willing to put yourself out there and accept what comes your way. Otherwise, you’ll only be left with regret.

For the all-time greats like McIlroy, there’s no time for regret. The scars will pile up as proof that you were in constantly in the fight. That’s OK because emptying the tank and failing is acceptable. That’s life. But not being willing to go out on a limb to reach for what is unattainable for most is unacceptable.

Rory McIlroy knows he might not win the 2025 Masters. But he also knows he has all the tools needed to win it. He always has.

And so, Rory McIlroy is ready to go again, hoping the ending will be different this time.