Rory

I still don’t think Rory McIlroy will win the 2025 MASTERS.  Rory is coming off a pair of victories over the last few weeks. It’s the first time he’s won twice in this country before the MASTERS.  There are a lot of smart people saying he’s at the top of his game, which is true, and that things are trending in the right direction for him to finally get that monkey off his back and put a green jacket on it. That’s where we disagree.

Let’s review shall we.  Rory needs to win the MASTERS to become the sixth player in professional men’s golf to claim the career grand slam. Before him, Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus, Woods achieved the feat. Nicklaus and Woods more than once. It’s rarified golf air.  It’s my belief that this accomplishment is taking up so much space in Rory’s head, understandably, that he is unable to get out of his own way when it comes to accomplishing this. Let me say this, it’s no easy feat, and it was more than 20 years ago when Tiger got it done. Long before the days of social media, intense scrutiny, constant questions, the non-stop badgering. Here’s what I’ve believed for the last five or six years. The ONLY way Rory is going to get this done is to somehow come in under the radar. Not facing the barrage of questions. Coming in when little is expected of him.That is not now. Now he’s coming in having just won his second Players championship. Everything is now expected from him.

And if he could somehow tamp down the Amen Corner demons in his head, there’s the matter of his ability to play the course. He has always struggled on the greens at big moments, just harken back to last summer at Pinehurst. He wrestled a little of that away with some putts at crucial times last weekend, but in majors, it still remains to be seen. Then there’s the rest of his game. Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee has said to me on my golf show that the course doesn’t fit his game.  Most of the lies at Augusta National call for a fader of the golf ball, which is not Rory’s strong suit. He would have to find a way to get very comfortable playing that shot, in pressure situations, often over the four days.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that I don’t want to see Rory win here.  I absolutely do! It would be historic for the game. I’m all for being around when history is made. It would be a glorious reception if Rory was able to make the walk up the 18th fairway, tournament in hand, to an adoring reception, worthy of the moment. I’m not counting on it, not yet anyway, but you know, that tournament has a way of making magical moments happen. I’m getting kinda of anxious to see what it has up its jacket sleeve this year.