Day, McIlroy find there’s no sure thing at Masters

Augusta National doesn’t give rain checks – not for washed-out practice rounds and not for perceived destiny.

Rory McIlroy and Jason Day are making their ninth and seventh Masters Tournament starts, respectively, and the annual assumption is that their time to don the green jacket is inevitable with games tailor-made for the golf course.

Guarantees, however, don’t exist in golf and especially at the Masters. If they did, Greg Norman, Tom Weiskopf, Ernie Els, David Duval and Davis Love III (among others) would have been eligible to join the 32 living members of the green jacket club at Tuesday night’s Champions Dinner.

“You always have those players like Ernie Els and Greg Norman that you know they are going to win the Masters, and they haven’t done it,” said Phil Mickelson. “It would be that kind of surprise if (McIlroy and Day) didn’t.”

The harsh truth is that Augusta National doesn’t always make good on past promises. Both McIlroy and Day seemingly had one arm in the sleeve of green jackets early in their Masters careers, only to be rebuffed.

It was six years ago when McIlroy let go of a four-shot lead entering the final round and crumbled on the back nine, starting with a wildly errant drive on No. 10. Still only 27 with a few layers of scar tissue in almost a decade coming to Augusta, few would still bet against his completing his career slam with a green jacket sooner rather than later.

“I would really be shocked if Rory doesn’t win at least four,” Els said. “He is just built for that place. I was never really as long as Rory and those guys with that nice slinging draw Rory has. It’s just got to be perfect for him.”

Els, however, knows all too well that there are no sure things at the Masters. He’s suffered his share of close calls and heartbreaks in 22 career starts to be able to offer advice to the current generation of prodigies.

“It didn’t happen for me, but I think if I can give anybody advice it’s to just be a little bit patient with it,” Els said. “I fell out of patience with the place.”

Els said his peers who solved the riddle of the Masters benefited from a different mindset when they arrived at the first tee.

“It was kind of like, if I wasn’t going to get that one, the writing was on the wall,” Els said. “You look back at Tom Weiskopf, Ed Sneed – it just didn’t go well for them on that course. Guys that came close. Then you get guys like Phil and Tiger and Bubba. Certain courses just give you things and they certainly did it, they played with a different mentality. You have to be a little loose and play the shots. I was always a little bit tight. You have to let the course come to you.”

Davis Love III made 20 career starts at Augusta from 1988 to 2016, finishing runner-up twice in 1995 and ’99.

He had the length to overpower Augusta’s par-5s, allowing him to consider par to be closer to 68 than 72, but his presumed green jacket never materialized.

“You always think that way when you’re 25 years old – and I did,” Love said. “It seemed like one of the tournaments that I would win easily. I know I can do it, but I just didn’t do it at the right time. Expectations were high and it was disappointing not to have won.”

Perhaps no “sure thing” suffered more in the Masters than Norman, who got clipped by a legend in 1986, a chip-in in 1987, an epic Sunday meltdown in 1996 and perhaps a lifetime of expectation in his last legitimate bid in 1999.

“I would have loved to have won the golf tournament,” Norman said his 23rd and final time playing in the Masters in 2009. “I didn’t win the golf tournament. But my name seems like it’s spoken about a lot of times when the Masters come up, which is a good thing as much as a bad thing sometimes.”

Now McIlroy and Day are the most prominent names mentioned who have to deal with the expectations and presumptions that show up with them every time they do at Augusta.

It took Mickelson 12 years to win his first green jacket, but he is in the same boat as McIlroy trying to complete his career slam at the U.S. Open, where he’s finished second a record six times. The pressure builds up the longer it takes.

“It certainly becomes more of a pressured feeling starting the week, like I don’t have too many more opportunities and I need to play my best golf this week … so I could see why that might be the case,” Mickelson said. “But the fact is that those guys are so young and so talented, they will give themselves many opportunities here at the Masters over the years, as long as they are patient.”

For the third time, McIlroy comes in with the chance to get the last remaining piece of his career slam that would place him in rare company with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods.

“I feel like I’ve got everything I need to become a Masters champion,” McIlroy said. “It’s the biggest tournament of the year for me, for obvious reasons, and I’ve never made any secret about that. It is. And whether that’s a good or a bad thing, it should be the same, like no matter if it’s that golf course, I’m playing against the same guys that I’ve beaten before at the biggest tournaments in the world and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to do it again. So that’s my mindset going into it.”

Day, who held a late Sunday lead in his 2011 Masters debut before finishing runner-up and tied for third in 2013, has more issues to deal with than his own expectations this week.

Day’s mother is recovering from cancer surgery two weeks ago, adding another layer of emotions to the challenge the 29-year-old native Australian faces. He said his personal life has taken the pressure off his game.

“It has not really hit me and I don’t know how to … articulate the words verbally to you about how I feel and the purpose,” Day said. “But I feel plenty and I feel good about everything. I’m just, once again, I’m happy to be here.”

If all goes well, perhaps McIlroy or Day will fulfill their potential at Augusta this week. Sentiment remains in their favor.

“This course is very well suited for them,” Mickelson said. “They drive the ball a long ways. They putt it great. This is going to be a course where they’ll continue to have those opportunities, and I would be surprised if over the course of the next 10, 15 years, they didn’t win it because they are just too good not to.”

Only time will tell whether each man’s Masters destiny includes a green jacket.