PGATOUR.COM
AUGUSTA, Ga.—The bigger the tournament, the better Rory McIlroy seems to play. That’s what all the great ones do.
Jack. Tiger. Phil. Among them, they’ve won 36 major championships, including 13 Green Jackets.
“I don’t know if you should really approach every tournament the same,” said McIlroy, who shot a 65 Thursday to share the first-round lead with Alvaro Quiros at Augusta National.
“You try and just do things a little bit better when you come into big events like the majors. Big occasions are something that I’m learning to deal with, and I feel as if I’m dealing with them pretty well at the minute.”
In order for McIlroy to add his name to that list of legends, he’ll of course have to start with winning one major championship.
The first is always the hardest to get, and McIlroy has already discovered that the hard way.
Nine months ago, he opened with a record-tying 63 in the British Open at St. Andrews, only to shoot an 80 in the afternoon wind the next day.
A month later, McIlroy three-putted the 15th hole on Sunday of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits to fall out of a tie for the lead. He finished one stroke shy of a playoff with Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer.
In McIlroy’s last five majors, he’s finished in the top 3 three times, dating back to the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine. That’s a sort of dubious honor but one that all the great ones have endured at one point or another. Just ask Mickelson.
“You know, that second day at St. Andrews, hopefully it doesn’t happen, but say I’m 2 over after three on Friday,” McIlroy said. “It’s fine. You’re still in the golf tournament. There are still 50-whatever holes to play. You don’t need to play spectacular golf for 72 holes to win.”
Spectacular is exactly what McIlroy was Thursday. He made seven birdies, no bogeys and could have gone even lower if not for missing birdie putts on the eighth, 10th and 18th holes.
“He was swinging with a lot of confidence,” said Rickie Fowler, who was in the same group as McIlroy. “I thought he was going to get a couple more and get to 8 or 9 under.”
Confidence is something McIlroy, at just 21 years old, already seems to have plenty of and why not after rounds like this one. All the great ones have that, too, by the way. Well, except for Woods right now but that’s a different story for a different day.
The fans feed off that bravado and in turn so does McIlroy, whether it’s at the home of golf, which is his favorite course, or at Augusta National in what is just McIlroy’s ninth major championship.
“It was great out there, the last six or seven holes, you could really feel the buzz of the crowd,” McIlroy said. “It sort of gives you that extra little bit of momentum to go on and sort of make a few birdies yourself.”
We sometimes forget that McIlroy is only 21.
Maybe it’s because he’s been around for a while after turning professional at 17, or maybe it’s because Tiger is the only other player younger than McIlroy to have shot a 65 in the Masters.
Or maybe it’s because McIlroy is an unassuming star-in-the-making who went unrecognized by a neighbor while throwing the football with friends in front of the house he’s staying at here the night before his opening round.
Or maybe it’s because for every spectacular round McIlroy has had, there’s been an equally spectacular car wreck to follow.
“I’m still relatively inexperienced but I feel as if I’m a pretty quick learner,” McIlroy said. “I’m getting there. I mean, there’s no substitute for experience, especially in major championships, and I still feel as if I have a lot of learning to do.”
And a Green Jacket to win when he does learn.
