Two days before the start of the 89th Masters, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose were invited to dinner by a few members of Augusta National.
Next year McIlroy will have somewhere else to be on a Tuesday evening in early April, namely at the Champions Dinner following the almost indescribable victory which made him just the sixth player to win a career grand slam.
“It’s ironic how these things happen,” McIlroy said after making a birdie at the first extra hole to secure a coveted green jacket, inflicting a second Masters play-off loss on the unfortunate Rose.
“We were invited to a dinner by a few members of the club on Tuesday night, and we were the only two players at that table, and we are the ones that end up being in the play-off. It’s funny how these things work.
“Justin is a great champion. And I remember watching the play-off in ’17 when he went up against Sergio [Garcia], and that didn’t quite go his way either.
“But he’s had a phenomenal record around here and I feel for him a little bit because he’s been so close. He’s a good friend and hopefully he has a few more opportunities.”
McIlroy’s first opportunity to win the Masters came in just his third appearance in 2011, when the then 21-year-old famously took a four-shot lead into the final round before collapsing to a closing 80.
He responded two months later by blowing the field away to win the US Open at Congressional and won the 2012 US PGA by an equally-wide margin, but it was his 2014 Open Championship triumph which propelled him into an unblinking spotlight.
The wire-to-wire victory at Royal Liverpool meant McIlroy “only” needed to win the Masters to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in having claimed all four major titles – a feat all four living members of the exclusive club felt was just a matter of time.
Nicklaus, Player and Watson all said so again after performing their duties as honorary starters before Thursday’s first round, an added burden of expectation which McIlroy could have done without.
“It’s tough,” he admitted. “You’ve had Jack, Gary, Tom, Tiger, you name it, come through here and all say that I’ll win the Masters one day. That’s a hard load to carry. It really is.
“These are idols of mine and look, it’s very flattering that they all come up here and they believe in me and they believe in my abilities to be able to win this tournament and achieve the grand slam and all that.
“But it doesn’t help, you know. I wish they didn’t say it.”
That last remark was delivered with a smile and for good reason.
In almost 11 years since his last major title McIlroy had surprisingly few genuine chances to end his drought over the closing holes of a final round, but being overhauled by Cameron Smith in the 2022 Open and letting last year’s US Open at Pinehurst slip through his fingers were painful blows.
“There’s been a few,” McIlroy said when asked to name the lowest point during his drought.
“It’s hard because I’ve played so much good golf. St Andrews was a tough one to take because you only get a few opportunities there during the course of your career.
“The US Open last year was awful. Yeah, the losses are hard, and again [I’m] just so proud of myself that I keep coming back and putting myself in positions to win these championships.”
