Rory McIlroy just revealed that there was a standoff between himself and Bryson DeChambeau at last year’s Masters, and it’s incredibly revealing.
In a preview of his upcoming Amazon Prime documentary, last year’s Masters champion, McIlroy, recounted a story from the final round: “I thought it very clearly was my putt.
“I thought his ball was slightly closer than mine. We sort of look at each other and I’m like, ‘I think it’s me to go’, and he’s like ‘I think it’s me to go.’
“It’s a very gamesmanshipy match-play thing. Really, both of us want to putt first. Because if you can hole that putt before your opponent, it puts pressure on them. He goes, ‘So why don’t we just throw a tee up for it to see who goes first?’
“And I’m like ‘No, this is the final round of The Masters, this isn’t just some random game on a Tuesday afternoon somewhere. I’m like, ‘No’. I wasn’t going to wilt in that situation. I was just going to stand firm.
“I said, ‘There’s a ref right there, why don’t we get him up to come and measure?’ He said ‘No, it’s fine, you can go anyway, I don’t care.’ I just felt like that was a really big moment. I was proud of myself for holding my ground.”
This short story from McIlroy tells you all you need to know about why he didn’t win The Masters for so long.
Rory McIlroy’s standoff with Bryson DeChambeau shows that he was overthinking The Masters
It took McIlroy 15 years to overcome his Masters demons after he threw away a lead in 2011. He is the perfect physical fit for the golf course, but clearly couldn’t jump the mental hurdle for many, many years.
That was clear throughout his final round, as on many occasions he looked to be collapsing down the stretch. The weight he carried on his shoulders at Augusta National was etched in a painstaking manner all over his face.
And this interaction shows that McIlroy was overthinking everything on Sunday. He went into the round expecting a mental duel with his rival, DeChambeau, and saw his every move as an act of gamesmanship.
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It’s likely that DeChambeau didn’t even remember this interaction with McIlroy until it was brought to light in the documentary. He was so flippant about the situation that he was willing to flip a tee over it.
McIlroy, however, saw this small moment as a turning point in the tournament. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing on the day. It gave him the confidence he needed to finally win his Green Jacket.
But it’s an interesting window into the mindset of the Northern Irishman, and how this hallowed turf haunted him for so many years.
Bryson DeChambeau’s post-round comments show he doesn’t remember Rory McIlroy standoff
In stark contrast to McIlroy’s story, DeChambeau said after his round that McIlroy didn’t talk to him once on Sunday. Now, he could have been lying, or he might have genuinely not remembered this confrontation with the eventual winner.
If the latter is true, it shows just how much of a nothing moment this interaction with McIlroy was to the American. McIlroy built it up to be a butting of heads between two alphas. But when DeChambeau said, “You can go anyway, I don’t care”, he really meant it.
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Of course, it was DeChambeau who melted down in the final round, not McIlroy, so maybe the Northern Irishman’s account of the story is true. But DeChambeau’s collapse is more likely attributed to the physical holes in his game, rather than him losing the mental battle to McIlroy.
Augusta National and DeChambeau were well and truly in McIlroy’s head, and it will be interesting to see if that continues to be the case now that he’s finally won.
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