Michaux: Pressure to win Masters still there for McIlroy

It was a simple statement of fact in the middle of many, said casually without any malicious intent or ulterior motive.

“Rory (McIlroy) going for a career slam is going to be a story every year until it happens,” Adam Scott said.

McIlroy does not deny that simple truth. Only 26 years old but playing his eighth Masters, the Northern Irishman comes to his second career slam opportunity at Augusta Na­tional Golf Club knowing full well the stakes that are in play. The five players who have accomplished the feat before him are among the game’s absolute, all-time best. The lure of joining their company can be intoxicating.

All McIlroy has to do is win the Masters on a course that should bend to the will of his immense talents.

“I feel like I’ve got everything I need to become a Masters champion,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “But I think each and every year that passes that I don’t, it will
become increasingly more difficult. So there’s no time like the present to get it done.”

In the career slam fraternity, the window on completion was never open long. Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods sealed the deal in their first attempts. Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player got it done in their third tries.

Of all the majors, the fact that it’s the Masters that has lingered on McIlroy’s plate is surprising. Even to him. It was Augusta where he had his first real chance to close the deal in 2011, starting the final round with a four-shot lead before melting down on the final nine.

“This is one I wish I caught earlier, I guess. I had a chance,” he said.

Two months later, McIlroy caught the U.S. Open in rare soft conditions at Con­gressional to start his major achievements. A couple of PGA Championships and a British Open later, he’s left with the one that should have started it all as the last obstacle to a different level of golfing immortality.

“Am I surprised that this is the last one left? Probably, yeah,” he said. “I’ve got a great game for here. I hit it high. I can land the ball soft. I’ve got decent touch around the greens. The only thing that’s probably held me back in my career and here is putting. You would think that this was a golf course that I can definitely win on here, I know that. I just haven’t quite been able to get myself over the hurdle.”

The problem with returning to the same major venue year after year is that demons can form. McIlroy certainly has a few. He has posted 40 or worse on nine holes in five consecutive Masters, including his front nine on Friday last year as he fell so far behind runaway leader Jordan Spieth that even going a field-best 15-under on his last 45 holes couldn’t remedy it.

“I feel like the first 27 holes last year really cost me the tournament, and if I could have had those back, I would have went in there with a different mindset and a different disposition, I guess,” he said. “So I knew as soon as this tournament finished last year that I was going to prepare maybe a little bit differently for it this year.”

Differently means that McIlroy never showed up for his annual pretournament week visit. He’s not participating in the Par-3 Contest for the first time since 2011, trying to keep the focus on the tournament without obsessing about the preparation.

“Really not trying to put too much emphasis on it or too much pressure on myself,” he said. “Just try and go out and really enjoy it. … I really feel like I play my best golf when I’m more relaxed, when I’m having fun out there and I’m not, as you said, not overdoing it, not overthinking it. … Everyone’s different, but for me, so much information taken on board isn’t necessarily a good thing. And all of a sudden you start thinking about all the places that you’re not supposed to hit it instead of the place that you are.”

To his benefit, the hype surrounding him pales to 2015, when there seemed to be a “false sense of urgency” in his first career slam attempt coming off consecutive majors wins at the end of 2014. So many players come to Augusta in such high form, including No. 1 Jason Day and defending champion Spieth that the volume is dialed a little down on the world No. 3.

“Probably a little bit more subdued going in this time because I maybe haven’t had the win this year,” he said. “But I feel like my game is right there, so I feel good.”

That everyone is fawning over Day and Spieth instead of him has his attention.

“I’d be lying if I said those guys having success doesn’t motivate me – of course it does,” he said. “I want to dominate. I want to go back to the summer of 2014 and play like that for the rest of my career. Whe­ther that’s possible or not remains to be seen, but I know that’s a level that I can play at, and I’d love to be able to play at that level more consistently.”

Despite the slew of top-shelf favorites, McIlroy should be favored to win the Masters. If all 89 starters in the field play their best possible golf every day this week, McIlroy should – at worst – be tied for the lowest number in the end. Even if his putting isn’t up to the high standards of others, he has the length and precision to cut the course down to such a small size that he can compensate. Vijay Singh and Angel Cabrera weren’t world-class putters, either.

Augusta National doesn’t just give out green jackets to the players who should win, though; otherwise, Tom Weis­kopf, Greg Norman, Ernie Els and Davis Love III would have enjoyed Texas barbecue at Tuesday’s Champions Dinner.

It’s up to McIlroy to make it happen and end the story before it keeps dragging on and getting harder and harder. Has he found the formula to finish it?

“So if on Sunday I find myself in the position where I have a realistic chance to do that, ask me the same question,” McIlroy said. “Hopefully, when I’m sitting in one of those (green jackets) … I’ll be able to tell you.”