Floodgates of Masters Open for Rory

👋 Hey Patrons,

Today, we're thrilled to welcome Joy Chakravarty to the column. Joy was walking the hallowed fairways of Augusta National, watching history unfold in real time at this year's Masters. His take is bigger than just a tournament report: what Rory did on Sunday wasn’t just another feather in his cap; it may have cracked something open. Today’s column makes a case for Rory that is worth reading. We'll get out of the way now. Pour yourself something good and settle in.

Let’s get started…

That Rory McIlroy would win multiple Masters titles was never in doubt. It took a whole lot longer for Destiny’s favorite child to get to this point, but the floodgates seem to have well and truly opened.

Even though he is just 36 and the best part of his career is in front of him, two Masters and six major championships still feel like an underachievement. After all, he had four of them in the bag before he turned 25.

On a beastly golf course like Augusta National, you need your driver to behave. Driving is also the cornerstone of McIlroy’s golf. For him to be struggling with his driver and yet dominate the field is a huge warning sign for the rest of the field. Fred Couples had an inkling of that.

Not sure what he saw at the driving range, because his prediction has proved to be 100 percent correct so far. On Thursday, after McIlroy opened with a 67, the 1992 champion declared he “did not see Rory losing this tournament ever again”.

With the win, Rory has now matched Nick Faldo as the most successful European player in major championship history, and became only the fourth player in the Masters to become a back-to-back winner. The other three are Jack Nicklaus, Faldo, and Tiger Woods.

The Masters, of course, is the only major that is played at a permanent venue, and McIlroy has mastered it well. The most impressive part of his Masters game is how well McIlroy has managed the back nine of the course. It’s not as if he was not having trouble. He still made a double bogey and a bogey on the 11th and 12th on Saturday, but he really has educated himself on how to handle the challenges.

Last year, he famously made double bogeys on the par-5 13th and the 15th, but he kept his wits intact. It was more of the same this year. McIlroy was eight under par for the back nine, and that was key. On the other hand, Justin Rose, who narrowly missed out again and finished tied third two behind McIlroy, was 10-under par for the front nine and even-par for the back.

He tried his best with spectacular recovery shots like this, but the Amen Corner once again played a crucial role in the outcome. When Rose reached the 11th tee, he was one ahead of McIlroy at 12-under, and two adrift of Young. Rose made a bogey on the 11th and then got tricked by the 12th into making another. That just blew the wind out of his sails.

As Rose was playing the 12th hole, McIlroy was walking down the 11th after pulverizing a massive drive that left him a seven-iron shot from 199 yards with a good view of the pin. And yet, the world No. 2 was happy to aim for the safe right-centre of the green and two-putt for a par from there. He did not want any repeat of the previous day when he made a double bogey after finding water.

That was an insane amount of restraint from a player who is known for his aggression in seeking pins.

Even though he raced to a six-shot lead after 36 holes, and then lost it all on Sunday to Cameron Young in the early part of the round and to Rose in the middle part, McIlroy said he never felt out of the race.

“I don’t know if it ever felt that way. I think, if I hadn’t birdied the 7th and 8th holes, that I would have started to have to push a little bit. But I think the birdies on 7 and 8, and Justin bogeying 11 and 12, and then me birdieing 12, I never felt like I was out of it. I never felt like I had to press at all,” said McIlroy.

Rose would feel he let go of another golden opportunity. Except for the 32 on Sunday last year, he hasn’t figured out the back nine properly for the past few years. Scheffler’s chances were more or less gone on Friday, when he closed with bogeys on the 13th and 15th holes and slipped down to even-par at the halfway stage.

It was a massive effort by the Texan to come to within one shot of McIlroy, but the margin of his one-shot loss was not indicative of close competition. He got two birdies late, and McIlroy made a bogey on the last, which got the world No. 1 much closer.

Like Scheffler, Hatton (66), and Henley (68) also did not put any real pressure on McIlroy. Young also did not make a single birdie on the back nine and dropped to tied third place after a 73.

All McIlroy needed to do was keep the ship steady, and he did a brilliant job of it.

— By Joy Chakravarty, Guest Editor

17: The hole played the toughest on Sunday, allowing zero birdies and 34 pars against 17 bogeys and three doubles or worse. It has terrorized pros all week. T2 on Saturday, 9th on Friday, and T4 on Thursday. Scottie Scheffler (-11/2nd) came very close to making the first birdie of the day and possibly forcing a playoff against Rory McIlroy (-12/1st) when he stood over an 18-foot birdie putt. Look how close we were to a playoff between the World No. 1 and 2.

1: With Scottie (World No. 1) and Rory (World No. 2) around, you can almost always expect a record in the making. Sunday delivered once more, as they finished second and first, respectively. This marks the first time since Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at the 2004 U.S. Open that a top-ranked duo has finished No. 1 and No. 2 in a major. Sure, Scottie fell short, but took the defeat like a champ, praising Rory to the high heavens, as you can watch here.

41.3%: Approach play was the biggest factor on the final day, accounting for 41.3% of the variance in scoring. It has been an important factor almost all week: 49.5% on Saturday, 33.7% on Friday, and 31.4% on Thursday. In every round after Thursday, it topped the charts for scoring variance. Keegan Bradley (-3/T21) is a perfect example of that trend. Forget the ace he made on Wednesday, his 23-spot climb in R4 was driven by elite iron play, ranking 4th in SG: Approach while backing it up with a strong 15th in GIR%.

2.55%: Around the green play matters at Augusta. Look no further than Jordan Spieth (-5/T12). On Sunday, he ranked 1st in SG: Around the Green, gaining over two strokes against the field. But he was also losing nearly a stroke on the greens, ranking 27th in SG: Putting. It has caused quite a headache for him, and he was very upfront about that in post-round media interaction.

20: The 20 mph winds on Sunday had Rory thinking back to an advice Tom Watson offered him back in 2009 about the 12th: wait for the right wind and hit. It also meant that 8, 13, and 15 were more reachable. So, how many birdies and bogeys did they offer? The eighth hole was the second easiest on R4, yielding 22 birdies and 28 pars vs. four bogeys; 13th, the easiest of R4, dished 23 birdies and 26 pars with just 1 bogey and 2 doubles or worse. The 15th played as the third easiest hole, with pros scraping 21 birdies and 27 pars against four bogeys and one double or worse.

With the Masters ending, our Essentially Golf Prediction Challenge winner is finalized. The contest was tight, and we had to apply the tiebreaker to determine the final five. So, congratulations to the top five finishers.

The top performer will take home a $25 Amazon Gift Card. And to everyone else who played along and shared your picks with us, thanks for being part of the ride. We'll have more such challenges coming up soon. Stay tuned…

Thank you for reading this edition of Essentially Golf. As always, we are curious to know your thoughts and open to your suggestions. So let us know in the comments below.

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