AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Making the long, steep walk up the 18th fairway at Augusta National Friday afternoon, a climb that felt like stepping through broken glass a day earlier, Rory McIlroy took a lingering look at the big white scoreboard over his right shoulder.
The board was stacked with famous and familiar names – Scheffler, Rose, DeChambeau, Lowry – and one more.
“I was just looking for my name,” said McIlroy, whose second-round 66 put his name near the top of the board, teasing a weekend that feels like a make a wish moment.
Less than 24 hours after turning a potential opening 68 into an appetite-killing 72 with a pair of late double bogeys, he was McIlroy the magnificent again in Friday’s sunny, breezy conditions.
Think of McIlroy at his best – his confidence almost contagious and painting shots against the game’s most romantic landscape – and that’s what his Friday looked like.
For one extended stretch in the second round, where Augusta National’s back nine tumbles down the hill into Amen Corner, it seemed the only thing the flagsticks were doing was getting in the way.
At the ski-slope steep par-4 10th, he stuffed his approach shot to within two feet of the hole for a birdie. At the dangerous 11th, he made a five-footer for birdie.
“Dial it up,” a patron said loudly, watching from the hillside nearby.
At the par-5 13th, McIlroy choked down on a 4-iron from the right pine straw and got just enough of it to cover the creek in front of the green, leaving him a nine-foot eagle putt that earned him another piece of Masters crystal and waved him fully onto the weekend stage.
It was that point, backed by a steady finish, when aspiration and actuality came together.
Call it delayed gratification.
McIlroy may not win this Masters, but he has given himself his best chance since 2018 when he entered the weekend tied for fourth. Since then, he has not been inside the top 20 when Saturday dawned.
As McIlroy walked off the 18th green where basketball star Caitlin Clark was watching from her portable Masters chair, the cheers got louder as he was leaving.
McIlroy may not win this Masters, but he has given himself his best chance since 2018 when he entered the weekend tied for fourth. Since then, he has not been inside the top 20 when Saturday dawned.
The expectations heaped on McIlroy this week are as big as they are familiar. Completing the career Grand Slam seems to hang on every swing. That’s why what happened late Thursday – pitching his third shot into water at the 15th hole then missing the 17th green long and three-putting for a double – landed like a punch to the jaw.
McIlroy left Augusta National quickly thereafter, making sure he was home in time to see his daughter Poppy before she went to sleep. A soft spot after a hard landing.
“I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf yesterday and I wasn’t going to let two bad holes sort of dictate the narrative for the rest of the week,” McIlroy said.
He called his mind man Dr. Bob Rotella Friday morning and took his counsel not to force the issue but to let the day and the round come to him.
At breakfast, McIlroy’s friend Shane Lowry, who sits one behind McIlroy on the leaderboard, could sense the lingering sting.
“We talked about what he did yesterday and he was quite frustrated. I’m sure last night was tough for him,” Lowry said.
“But for both of us, there’s a lot of golf to be played this weekend yet, and he knew that.”
Among the many learnings associated with playing Augusta National in April is how little things can become big things quickly. McIlroy liked his second shot to the 15th green on Thursday and was surprised by how his pitch shot reacted on the firm green, leading to the water ball.
On Friday, the little things leaned McIlroy’s way. His second shot into the 13th green might have turned out differently.
“When the ball was in the air, I was like, you idiot, what did you do?,” McIlroy said.
He held his breath and watched it land softly and without a splash.
Fortune shone on him again after missing the 14th fairway to the right, his ball settling among the pine trees and their fallen needles. McIlroy looked up and saw an opening and made a routine par.
“I rode my luck a little bit on 13 and 14 and 15 and thankfully got away with it a little bit. I think those are the sorts of things that you need to happen in major championships.” – Rory McIlroy
McIlroy wasn’t sure his second shot would clear the water fronting the 15th green but it did, defying gravity as it stopped on a slope.
“I rode my luck a little bit on 13 and 14 and 15 and thankfully got away with it a little bit,” McIlroy said.
“I think those are the sorts of things that you need to happen in major championships.”
That same white leader board McIlroy studied playing his final hole is stuffed with stories waiting to unfold.
Take your pick – Rose, Hatton, DeChambeau, Scheffler, Conners – and each of them wants what McIlroy wants. If it was a game of emotional favorites, McIlroy might have a locker full of green jackets already.
Instead, he has something else.
The weekend to write a new ending to his story.