Had you stopped watching the opening day of The Masters after Rory McIlroy’s approach to the 15th hole, you would probably be shocked to learn his score for the day.
What threatened to be a real statement of intent from Rory McIlroy at Augusta National saw his Thursday end with something of a whimper.
While the Northern Irishman was some distance adrift of Justin Rose by the time he was midway through the back nine, it did seem that McIlroy was set to post one of his best ever opening rounds at The Masters.
McIlroy was four under after 14 holes. And he found himself just over the back of the par five 15th green in two, with what appeared to be a difficult, yet realistic, chance at making a birdie.
Paul McGinley suggests reason for Rory McIlroy’s implosion in the first round at The Masters
However, McIlroy would prove to be too aggressive with his chip and could only watch as his ball ended up in the water in front of the green. Ultimately, he would walk off with a seven – sparking an end to the round which probably ends his hopes of winning the green jacket for another year.
Another double bogey on the 17th hole took all of the shine off the day. And as the golfing world sat stunned, Paul McGinley explained on Sky Sports (broadcast on 10/4; 23:34) why he believes McIlroy made the mistake which led to his round unravelling.
“I want to take you back to the 15th hole. Rory was imperious up until then. Playing beautifully. Very focused, very concentrated and then a couple of things happened there as was getting ready to play what was a difficult chip but not impossible on 15,” he said.
“The first was his playing partner, Bhatia, hit his second shot in the water. He took forever to take the drop and after almost 10 practice swings he then went and played his pitch shot. It wasn’t a bad shot from where it was but it went back on to Rory’s line.
“Now from there Rory has to wait for him even though he is ready to go and he is a quick player, one of the quickest players on the tour. Bhatia has to walk all the way around the water and all the way up on to the green to mark his ball.
“Then as Rory is getting ready to play again he has to wait for the 16th tee box which is right behind and the playing people having to hit there too. So again, a bit of a drop in concentration, he hasn’t got into his routine as he has before and I think he got distracted there. That is why the execution wasn’t quite what we have seen up until there. That was a difficult shot, it wasn’t impossible, it was a miss hit and I think it was down to concentration more than anything else. It could well have been a factor that those two incidents happened and slowed him down to almost three minutes from when it was his shot to play before he actually played it. That is a long time for Rory McIlroy, one of the quickest players in the game.”
McIlroy will struggle to argue Akshay Bhatia caused his mistake on 15
It seems a particularly unfair take to lay any blame at the door of Bhatia. In this day and age of extremely slow play on the PGA Tour, a three minute wait on the biggest stage of the year so far should hardly be that much of a problem.
McIlroy has built his entire year around The Masters so far. He spoke of adding shots to his game which he did not have at Augusta last year after winning The Players Championship.
So the idea that the 35-year-old would have taken his eye off the ball to the extent that he would get his chip shot so wrong seems baffling.
Pressure does strange things to players, and McIlroy is arguably dealing with more pressure than anyone else in the field this week. And unfortunately, he did the one thing which Scottie Scheffler seems to never do in the big moments – and that is follow a big mistake with another shortly after.
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