RMcIlroy’s press conference on Tuesday has become a modern Masters tradition, his annual attempt to explain exactly how he plans to finally win the thing that fits right into the par-three contest, the pimento cheese appetizer sandwiches, and watching the players try to make the ball jump over the water during the practice rounds. In the 12 years since McIlroy took a four-shot lead here on Sunday in 2011, he seems to have tried every way possible, thick and thin, zoomed out and dialed in.
There were years when he played the course over and over again before the tournament, years when he barely stopped here, years when he talked about how much it meant, and years when he downplayed it. “Yes,” McIlroy said himself this year. “This is my 16th start in the Masters, so I feel like I’ve done it a lot of different ways.”
This time, McIlroy says, he wants to “bring a little bit of normalcy to what I’m trying to do. I play 25 weeks a year and there is no point in doing anything different this week than other weeks.” He came here to play a few times last week so he could do his prep work early, and arrived for the tournament on Tuesday morning, just like he does for any other event. “Now it’s just about getting out there, being relaxed and being in the right frame of mind.”
McIlroy normally talks for more than 30 minutes, but this year he was in and out of the press room in less than 10 minutes. He’s been talking a lot in recent years, at last year’s Masters he got caught up in the feud between the PGA and LIV, and whether it was a coincidence or not, they ended up missing the cut. It’s no surprise that he wants to keep his head down this year and focus on his golf instead of everyone else’s.
Luckily for all of us in the press, Tiger Woods took some McIlroy’s word for him. “There’s no doubt he will do it one day,” Woods said, when asked if he thought McIlroy could one day complete the grand slam of all four major tournaments. “Rory is too talented, too good, and he will be playing this event for a long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when. Rory will one day be a great Masters champion. It could be this week, you never know, but with the talent he has, the way he plays the game and how the golf course suits his eye, it’s only a matter of time.”
“That’s flattering,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice to hear the best player to ever play the game, in my opinion, say something like that. But does that mean it will happen? Obviously not. But he’s been around the game long enough to know that I at least have the potential to do it. But I know I have the potential to do it.” That goes for everyone else too, as he says: “It’s not like I haven’t been a pretty good player over the decades.” What no one knows, not even Woods, is whether he ever will.
There were a few hints as to how he wants to go about it this time. He has worked with Woods’ former coach Butch Harmon. “We text probably every day,” McIlroy said, “He’s part psychologist, part swing coach. You spend four hours with Butch and you leave with two swing tips and thirty stories, but you always leave hitting the ball better than when you came. Technically, they both worked on his approach game, but it was also revealing that he mentioned how good it was to get Harmon’s blessing. “I also think that is a nice confirmation.”
You’d think four major titles and 38 professional wins would be all the validation McIlroy needs, but here we are. Otherwise, McIlroy’s plan is to take it easy and try to enjoy himself. “When I think back to 18-year-old Rory driving down Magnolia Lane for the first time, how did I feel, and I think you have to try to go back and just be grateful that you got to be a part of this. tournament, and that you can participate in it every year.
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“Luckily I’ve improved a bit since my first start here, and I feel like I have all the tools to do well this week. But again, I think one of the most important things is to enjoy it and smell the – I don’t think the roses – the azaleas along the way.”
