With a week to go until the Masters Tournament, europeantour.com hears from some of the leading contenders to win the first Major of the season. First up, Rory McIlroy…
Twelve months on from “a defining moment” in his burgeoning career, Rory McIlroy will return to Augusta National determined to lay the ghosts of his ‘Masters Meltdown’ to rest.
In just over a week’s time, McIlroy expects the spotlight to be shining on him after his performance at the 2011 Masters Tournament where, after reducing Augusta National to its knees over the first three days, he established a four stroke lead entering the final round, only to let victory slip away with a closing 80.
The grace with which he accepted his final day disappointment, later tweeting a picture of himself standing alongside Charl Schwartzel as the South African wore the Green Jacket, spoke volumes of McIlroy’s character, while a superb victory at the US Open Championship two months later proved that any criticism of his mental fortitude had been woefully misplaced.
McIlroy believes that the strength he found through adversity enabled him to lay the foundations for his subsequent triumph at Congressional Country Club, and the World Number Two is now confident of doubling his tally of Major titles when he returns to the iconic course in Georgia, America.
He said: “Last year’s Masters was definitely a defining moment for me. It could’ve been a crossroads in my career. I could’ve done what I did on Sunday at Augusta and let it affect me and let it get to me, and maybe go into a slump, or get down or feel sorry for myself.
“But I had enough good people around me not to let that happen. It was a big crossroads for me in my career, and I was able to go down the right path and put things right by winning the next Major. All I wanted to do was put myself in that position again just to see if I could handle it better – and I proved to myself that I could.
“It was obviously a little easier going out on Sunday at the US Open, because I had such a big lead. But I felt a lot more relaxed and a lot more sure of myself than I had on the Sunday of Augusta, and that showed I had learned my lesson.”
The ability to learn from your mistakes is an essential part of development, both as a golfer and indeed as a human being, and McIlroy will draw extensively on his experiences of last year if, and hopefully when, he finds himself in a similar situation on Sunday April 8.
“One of the worst things I did was just trying to stay ahead of everyone else,” he said. “Instead, I maybe should’ve had a number in my head, like getting to 15 under. That way, you have a target, and that’s all you’re thinking about.
“You’re not thinking about Charl [Schwartzel] making eagle on three, and you’re not thinking of Tiger [Woods]. You’re not thinking about all these guys you’re trying to keep ahead of. All you’re thinking about is that target of 15 under, and that’s something that I’ve learned from and something I’ve tried to put into practice since.
“So it was a big mistake of thinking too much about what everyone else was doing, instead of just concentrating on myself and setting myself a score. Because when you do that, it focuses your mind. In this game you have to be very selfish, and especially in situations like that. You can’t let your mind wander and start thinking about what anyone else is doing.”
Indeed, this time around most of his peers will be worrying about what McIlroy is doing, in light of the sensational run of form which briefly earned him the World Number One spot, before he was supplanted by Luke Donald earlier this month.
McIlroy is fully prepared for the levels of media interest which now chart his every move, and insists he will not let it affect his focus.
He said: “It will be very different this year. I wasn’t necessarily under the radar last year, but I'll be going there with a lot more attention and a lot more scrutiny because of what happened last year. But that’s just something I’ll have to deal with.
“I’ll try to take the same approach to the tournament as I did last year. The week before, I’ll go up to Augusta for a couple of days, do what I usually do, map the course out and do my own diagrams and my own drawings of the greens and slopes.
“You know roughly where the pin positions are likely to be for all four rounds, so you just try to reacquaint yourself with those and take different putts from all areas of the greens. Speaking about it makes me excited about going back there, and I can’t wait for it to start now.”
