Given Rory McIlroy’s talent, it is almost bizarre how he has never found himself in the mix coming down the stretch on Sunday at The Masters across his career.
Of course, everyone knows the pressure Rory McIlroy faces every time he heads down Magnolia Lane and prepares to tee it up at The Masters. The Northern Irishman has been a win at Augusta National away from completing the career grand slam since 2014.
He had a four-shot lead before the final round in 2011, while he finished second to Scottie Scheffler in 2022. Admittedly, McIlroy went into that Sunday with next to no chance of winning as he produced a masterclass in the final round.
He has seven top 10s at Augusta over his career. But whenever McIlroy has threatened to get himself in the mix, he has often found a way to take himself out again.
The forgotten round which ended Rory McIlroy’s hopes of winning The Masters one year
And it seems that one of McIlroy’s best openings is often overlooked when assessing his relationship with the first major of the year.
All eyes were on McIlroy heading into the 2012 Masters given what had happened 12 months earlier. He had since won his first major title at the US Open – by eight shots. And many would have expected McIlroy to bounce back at Augusta.
He got off to a very good start, finding himself just one shot off the lead – held by Fred Couples and Jason Dufner – at the halfway stage.
But speaking on 5 Clubs this week, Gary Williams suggested that what followed from McIlroy was one of the most bizarre performances he can remember.
“He really hasn’t had that contending, deep, four holes to go, shot back, shot ahead – even in 2011 because of the implosion that started on the 10th hole, he was out of it by the time he got to the last four holes,” he said.
“I’ll mention one other year, and this year was always confound me. The year after, 2012, he started the weekend a shot back and he was paired with Sergio, and here they’ve got this chummy relationship and they both went out and imploded. And then they both made putts on the 12th hole and they gave each other – you’ll remember this – they gave each other this sarcastic hug, like, ‘hey, look at that’. And he shot 77 that day and it was a forgotten weekend.”
How Rory McIlroy reacted to his dismal weekend at the 2012 Masters
McIlroy would end up finishing in a tie for 40th that week. Obviously, his challenge ended after Saturday, but there was not much of a fightback in the final round as he posted a 76.
He suggested after his final round that things unravelled once he got off to a slow start in the third round.
“Yeah, it was a disappointing weekend, just one of those things. I played pretty well over the first couple days and then just came out on Saturday and really just didn’t have it that front nine, and that sort of killed me for the rest of the tournament. Yeah, I mean, just one of those things,” he said.
“But I’ll come back next year and try my best again.”
It is McIlroy’s worst ever result when he has made the cut at The Masters. And it is probably fair to say that it inflicted one of the numerous scars which he has picked up in the majors over the course of his career.
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