Friday at Augusta, the sun shone right through the tall pines. The azaleas lit up like they were competing. And Rory McIlroy, somewhere inside all that beauty, awakened the spirits around this hallowed course like it was Sunday. Only, it was not. As they say, the real magic always starts when the final roars echo through Amen Corner on Sunday. We are still some distance from that show, but McIlroy turned pied piper early to ignite the patrons into a wild frenzy.
He made nine birdies. And yet again, as he has for years, brought the burden of expectations onto his broad shoulders. The galleries followed him in the way people chase a scent of history. Quietly one moment, euphoric the next. Reverently, leaning forward in faith. The first major of the golfing season has a special charm. McIlroy just happened to turn on the tap early.
Over a rousing back nine, made spectacular by a chip in birdie from 30 yards off the green at the 17th hole, McIlroy put his competition to the shade with an emphatic 65.
Patrick Reed (69) and Sam Burns (71) played some great golf too, but they were left watching the spectacle through binoculars. The entire field is watching the show from an unhealthy distance. But then, the Masters is far from over till the fat lady sings at the 72nd hole. The majors are a watermark of greatness, and the ink is imaginary till the last man picks up a worn ball from the cup near the clubhouse. There is plenty of golf left to be played, but no one in the history of this iconic championship has enjoyed so much comfort after 36 holes.
“I’ve certainly had times where I felt like in the zone or in that flow state or whatever you want to call it,” McIlroy said. “Maybe this afternoon was one of those times. I would say maybe not in the zone, but I definitely found a sense of flow those last few holes.”
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But none of this came from any sense of perfection. McIlroy was disarmingly honest about that when the media asked him afterward — he had spent two rounds alongside amateur Mason Howell, an 18-year-old seeing a major championship up close for the first time.
“I think when I was 18 and I started to play TOUR events, I thought that pros just didn’t make mistakes, and he saw plenty of mistakes out of me over the first two days.”“Again, I fell back on my short game and my wedge play. So hopefully he saw someone that wasn’t perfect but was very efficient with how he scored, and I think that’s — to be successful at the professional level, that’s a big part of it.”
THE MOUNTAIN GETS BIGGER
The largest 36-hole lead in the 90-year history of the Masters Tournament. McIlroy, by his own admission, was not perfect. He never is. A bogey on the 10th, where he buried an approach in the sand and then missed a five-footer for par, briefly handed Reed a share of the lead adding a layer of intrigue for the galleries. But the wobble was brief and the response was clinical.
McIlroy went on tear, and the pursuit — if it can be called that — never got close again, at least for a bit. On Thursday, Jack Nicklaus, one of the three back-to-back Masters champions, alongside Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods — leaned into McIlroy with sage advice. Do not to make double bogeys, he said, with an expletive for punctuation.
In 1966, Nicklaus was covering a oneshot deficit at the halfway turn. Faldo was working the trail from five strokes back in 1990. And Woods, the last man to defend the Masters, was down by four in 2002. Can McIlroy get it done with a cushion on his bag, and a burden on his shoulders?
The worry with McIlroy was the burden of celebration. He was in the crowd for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. He was on hand to encourage the kids on Sunday during the Drive, Chip and Putt. Who can forget the wines he laid out for the dinner on Tuesday? Yet, he has played with renewed vigour and rare freedom. We haven’t seen this brand of McIlroy at the majors in a long time.
Perhaps, the magic of the Jacket, coveted all his life, has broken open the seams that bound him in knots for such a long time. Deep into the night on Sunday, we will know if McIlroy has found the courage to stare expectations in the face and smile while wielding his irons like the gladiator he was always meant to be. With his driving accuracy languishing at the bottom of the field, he will need those irons more than ever.