AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | It was Tuesday evening at Augusta National one year ago and Rory McIlroy didn’t know where to go.
He was joining Justin Rose and some club members for dinner in the clubhouse and as McIlroy drove down Magnolia Lane toward the circle in front of the Southern colonial clubhouse, he realized the Champions Dinner had begun upstairs.
Should he go park his own car in the players’ lot and make the short walk in or allow a valet to do it, knowing he was likely to hear a comment or two from his green-jacketed brethren enjoying a pre-dinner cocktail on the porch?
Problem solved forever when McIlroy went to his knees a few days later, having won one of the most emotionally grinding Masters victories ever, earning the best dinner reservation in golf – upstairs in the clubhouse on Tuesday of tournament week.
The full-circle moment arrives this evening as McIlroy hosts the Champions Dinner, taking his seat between club chairman Fred Ridley and Ben Crenshaw, who oversees the dinner with his gentle style and reverence for all things Augusta.
McIlroy has put together a menu that includes, among other things, grilled elk sliders, a peach and ricotta flatbread, yellowfin tuna carpaccio, an entrée choice of wagyu filet mignon or seared salmon with sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
“People keep asking me why didn’t you go more Irish? And I said, because I want to enjoy the dinner as well,” McIlroy joked early Tuesday afternoon during a 30-minute question-and-answer session in the media center, the same green jacket he put on a year ago now worn over his gray sweater.
“But talking in front of that group, I want to say the right things and make sure I get my feelings across of how grateful I am to be a part of that group.” – Rory McIlroy
Granted access to Augusta National’s famous wine cellar, McIlroy – who knows his way around good wine – has chosen four selections that have meaning to him, even if they do escalate the dinner tab the new champion traditionally picks up.
As for what he will tell the room, McIlroy has been thinking about it for weeks.
“So many legends of the game there. Obviously there’s two that won’t be with us this year [Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson], which is a shame, but hopefully they will be with us in the future, and I’m sure they will be with us in the future,” McIlroy said.
“But talking in front of that group, I want to say the right things and make sure I get my feelings across of how grateful I am to be a part of that group.”
The dinner is the last item on the checklist before McIlroy can go into full tournament mode. He arrived in Augusta Saturday to attend the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, dropped in on the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals Sunday before playing 18 holes with his father, Gerry, and then had his various Tuesday duties.
Had he not won last year, McIlroy likely would not have come to Augusta until Monday evening but so much is different now, putting him in a pleasantly unfamiliar spot this April. After more than a decade of chasing a victory that teased and occasionally tormented him, McIlroy no longer hears others asking the same question he asked himself for so long:
“When are you going to get this done?”
Now, it has become a question of motivation or, perhaps more accurately, the level of McIlroy’s motivation.
Will he freewheel it this week, having lifted the weight of a lifetime from his back by completing the career Grand Slam last year? Or does he lock back in, figuring he’s in his competitive prime and there are only so many realistic chances to win another green jacket?
“I know that I’m going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks that the champions get here. It doesn’t make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but just more relaxed about it all.”
McIlroy seemed to struggle with that after his victory last year. He appeared to drift through the summer, openly discussing what comes after scaling his personal Everest.
“There’s still a lot that I want to do. You think every time you achieve something or have success that you’ll be happy, but then the goalposts move, and they just keep nudging a little bit further and further out of reach,” McIlroy said.
“I think what I’ve realized is, if you can just really find enjoyment in the journey, that’s the big thing because honestly I felt like the career Grand Slam was my destination, and I got there, and then I realized it wasn’t the destination.”
The next phase of McIlroy’s competitive journey will begin at 10:31 a.m. Thursday when he is introduced as the Masters champion here and sets off with Players champion Cameron Young and U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell.
Howell was two months shy of his second birthday when McIlroy played his first Masters in 2009. Seven years later, Howell caught a golf ball McIlroy tossed him at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Now, they are grouped together in the Masters.
McIlroy remembers how he felt when got to play the first two rounds of the 2010 U.S. Open with Tom Watson and his place in the game’s hierarchy is now transposed. He remains the game’s most captivating player, his playing style and his personality similarly magnetic.
He spent much of his life chasing what he captured last April and, wearing his green jacket, McIlroy seems almost visibly lighter as his next Masters approaches.
“It’s completely different. I feel so much more relaxed,” McIlroy said.
“I know that I’m going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks that the champions get here. It doesn’t make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but just more relaxed about it all.”
And he’s booked on Tuesday night of Masters week forevermore.