Despite a two-and-a-half hour delay due to inclement weather, the 88th Masters Tournament is now well underway, and now commences the tracking of this year’s most prominent storylines.
Among them is arguably the most recurring —is ] this Rory Mcilroy’s year to capture his coveted Grand Slam?
Mcilroy’s adjusted tee-off time for Thursday’s first round was 1:12 p.m. EDT. He’s grouped with 2022 champion Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, another competitor who some feel has a shot at donning the Green Jacket in 2024.
Mcilroy made his 16th start in the Masters with five top-10 finishes, including a 2022 runner-up finish, so he’s not new to Augusta National by a long shot.
This is also his 10th attempt at winning a career Grand Slam and joining the likes of Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to have accomplished the feat.
And if you ask those around him, the consensus is clear: Expect him to soon be added to that elite company — if not this year, sooner rather than later.
“The answer to that, I think, is yes,” said six-time Masters winner Jack Nicklaus when asked if he felt Mcilroy would win the Masters in his career.
“As he gets older, it gets tougher. Rory McElroy good enough to win the Grand Slam? Absolutely,” Nicklaus continued. “Do I think Rory will win here? Yeah. He could win this year. He could win next year. He’s just too talented not to. But then again, [others] were too talented not to win those, too. You just never know.”
Without much prompting, Tiger Woods echoed similar confidence in McIlroy’s chances at accomplishing the elusive feat, even as he fielded questions about his own quest to join Nicklaus as the only players in Masters history to hold six Green Jackets.
“No question, he’ll do it at some point,” Woods said. “He’s just — Rory’s too talented, too good. He’s going to be playing this event for a very long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when. And it could be this week. You never know. I just think that, just, again, the talent that he has, the way he plays the game and the way this golf course fits his eye, it’s just a matter of time.”
McIlroy, himself, appreciated the sentiment expressed toward him from the likes of Woods, but he also downplayed the implications of such on the actual course itself.
“Yeah, it’s flattering,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice to hear, in my opinion, the best player to ever play the game say something like that. So, yeah, I mean, does that mean it’s going to happen? Obviously not. But he’s been around the game long enough to know that I at least have the potential to do it. I know I have the potential to do it too. It’s not as if I haven’t been a pretty good player for the last couple of decades.”
McIlroy, 33, won his last major back in 2014 when he took home the Open Championship played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Merseyside, England. Since then, he’s had close misses, but has yet to get over that final career Grand Slam hump.
But while McIlroy clearly wants to win at Augusta National, he says he’s been playing the game of golf long enough to know how not to let the desire overtake him.
“I would say, not trying to win it from the first tee shot. I think that’s something that I’ve tried to learn,” McIlroy said. “It’s a 72-hole golf tournament. I’ve won from 10 strokes back going into the weekend. There’s loads of different ways to do it. With a 72-hole golf tournament, you can be patient. You can be disciplined, and you can stick to your game plan. And that’s something I’ve really tried to learn at this tournament over the years.
“And I’m pretty confident in my golf game. I think I can do most things. But sometimes you just have to take the conservative route and be a little more disciplined and patient.”
RORY AND BUTCH
One of the top pre-tournament storylines was McIlroy’s decision to work with long-time, and well-known, golf instructor Butch Morgan in order to help refine his swing.
But McIlroy called Morgan so much more than a swing coach.
“He’s part sort of psychologist, part swing coach,” McIlroy said. “If anyone that has been to see Butch over the years, the first thing he’ll do is he’ll bring you into his office. And we sat and had a 45-minute conversation before he even looked at a swing or even before we really talked about golf at all.
“Like, I always joke about you spend four hours with Butch and you go away with two swing tips and 30 stories. But you always go away hitting the ball better than when you came.”
As for that swing, according to an article from golfdigest.com, Morgan gave his pupil a bit of a compliment sandwich, calling his swing “beautiful” and one “built for drivers.” But for shorter shots, he recommended a shorter follow-through.
“We need to bring down that ball flight, and to do that, we need to chop off that follow through,” Harmon said via a recent appearance on Sky Sports. “We need to bring down that ball flight, and to do that, we need to chop off that follow through.”
HOW TO WATCH
Between McIlroy’s Career Grand Slam chase, Woods’ quest for an historic sixth Green Jacket and keeping an eye on whether or not Jon Rahm can become the first back-to-back Masters winner since Woods did it in 2001 and 2002, there will be plenty action to follow.
You can watch the Masters’ ESPN broadcast from 3-7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and view it on CBS from 3-7 p.m. on Saturday and 2-7 p.m. on Sunday.
Streaming wise, you can catch the action at the Masters’ website and mobile app.
