AUGUSTA, Ga. — Earlier in the week at Augusta National, Rory McIlroy said he was feeling comfortable with both the golf course and his game. He had taken nearly a month at home to get ready both physically and mentally for all that this particular week would throw at him – most of it different, as defending champion.
“I know that I can do it now,” McIlroy said, “so that should make it a little easier for me to go out and play the golf I want to play.”
Turns out, winning the Masters has made it awfully easy for McIlroy to know what it takes to win the Masters.
The defending champion leads the way at Augusta National by six shots – the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history – and is very firmly in the driver’s seat heading into the weekend.
“I've prepared as well for this Masters as any other that I've played,” McIlroy said. “Over the years (…) my mindset hasn't been ‘keep swinging.’ It's been guided, tentative. I think the experience I've accrued over the years and obviously with what happened last year, it makes it a bit easier out there to keep swinging.”
No one is giving McIlroy his green jacket back. He, as well as anyone, knows what kind of danger lurks around every corner at Augusta National. But there’s not much more you could ask for from McIlroy after Friday, where he shot a 7-under 65.
He opened the day with three birdies in a row on Nos. 2-4 and then made six birdies in his closing seven holes – including four in a row on Nos. 15-18 – to come into the house.
The back-nine charge was highlighted by a tasty pitch in on No. 17 from a tricky lie short and right of the green. Right now, we are at the intersection of experienced and confident with McIlroy – and that is quite a dangerous place.
“I just want to go out and play two good rounds again,” McIlroy said of the weekend ahead. “Obviously, this golf course has certain characteristics that guys can get on runs, guys can make eagles, you hear roars all over the golf course. I think the next two days for me is really about focusing on myself. It's hard to avoid those big leaderboards out there, but like I know that I've got a lead, so I don't need to keep checking it all the time.
“For me, just really focusing on myself and staying in my own little world out there is the best thing.”
McIlroy – whose 12-under total through 36 holes is the lowest in history by a defending Masters champion – became on Friday just the fourth defending champion to hold a 36-hole lead the following year.
He leads both Sam Burns and 2018 champ Patrick Reed by six as that duo head into the weekend at 6 under. A trio of McIlroy’s European Ryder Cup teammates – Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, and Justin Rose – are a shot further back at 5 under and tied for fourth.
McIlroy, who is now looking to become the first back-to-back winner of the Masters in a quarter century, said he found himself playing Augusta National a lot after The Players Championship, where he had a pedestrian result after withdrawing the week prior due to a back injury. He wouldn’t go so far as saying he felt like he was underrated heading into this week, but he said he certainly understood why people would feel that way.
The defending-champion version of Rory McIlroy got a lot of coverage this week, but the trying-to-win-the-Masters version of McIlroy did not.
“I haven't played in three weeks. The last time everyone saw me, I was struggling with a bit of a back injury. It's understandable if I wasn't in the forefront of everyone's minds coming in here from a playing perspective,” McIlroy said.
He also, by choice, didn’t play any of the previous few weeks on the PGA Tour (admitting, “I honestly just don’t like the three tournaments leading up to this event”), but instead spent a bunch of time at Augusta National.
When you own a jet, it’s a pretty easy trip.
McIlroy said he sometimes would drop his daughter, Poppy, off at school in the morning, fly up to Augusta, and would still be home in time for dinner later in the day.
“It wasn't really about conserving energy, but just I felt the more time I could spend up here, the better,” McIlroy said.
“I've been on this golf course so much the last three weeks, and that's been a combination of practice and chipping and putting around greens, and then just playing one ball and shooting scores and ending up in weird places that you maybe never find yourself, and just trying to figure it out. I think just spending so much time up here has been a big part of (my success).”
McIlroy now has one arm back in the green jacket, and his special preparedness has led to a special performance so far.
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