McIlory holds off all challengers for 6th major title
McIlory celebrates his 2nd Masters and 6th major victory – image Masters Tournament
It is perhaps fitting that the world number one, two and three occupied the leading three or a share of the leading three positions after yet another dramatic Masters Tournament.
World number two Rory McIlroy ran out the winner by one shot over a fast finishing world number one, Scottie Scheffler, with world number three Cam Young sharing 3rd place with three others.
McIlroy successfully defended the title he won 12 months ago, but it was not without yet another gripping Masters Sunday, where McIlroy, Young and Justin Rose all had their time in the lead at various stages, and several other players came within just a shot or two.
But it would be McIlroy who found a way to hold them all off despite keeping the golfing world in suspense until the very last shot, his tee shot at the 72nd hole while holding a two-shot lead over Scheffler, who had finished 30 minutes earlier, ensuring it was not over till it was over.
McIlroy’s great par saves at the 16th and 17th followed birdies at the 12th and 13th his well-thought-out bogey at the last kept his nose ahead of Scheffler who threatened to make it three Masters titles in his last five attempts with a now almost expected late charge.
McIlroy shared the lead into the final round, but a slow start by him and consecutive bogeys at the first and second had Young in front.
Then came what would be a crucial moment for the Northern Irishman. His tee shot at the reachable 3rd found the green, and he two putted for birdie to seemingly settle the nerves, although surprisingly he immediately double bogeyed the 4th and dropped two behind Young.
By the turn, McIlroy was one behind Rose, who birdied the 7th, 8th and 9th to move one ahead of McIlroy and Young, who faltered after a fast start to be two from the lead.
McIlroy took the outright lead when Rose bogeyed the 11th and 12th and moved two ahead when he birdied the 12th.
McIlroy was never headed from that point but needed all of his great short game skills over the closing few holes to hold on for a memorable victory.
Having started the weekend with a six-shot lead, McIlroy played the final 36 holes in even par, but despite being placed under the most severe pressure, he was able to hold on to win his 6th major title, proving that winning is never easy despite a substantial lead.
“I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the grand slam, and then this year I realized it’s just really difficult to win the Masters, said McIlory. “I tried to convince myself it was both.
“Yeah, just incredible. I obviously did the bulk of my work on Thursday and Friday. I don’t think I would have believed anyone if they said to me all you have to do is shoot even-par for the weekend and you’ll win. I definitely thought I was going to need to go out there and at least shoot a couple of under-par scores.
“Yesterday the course was gettable pretty much all day, but today the wind was up a little bit. It was gusty. It made things definitely a little more tricky, especially on the back nine.
“Yeah, I just had to hang in there. I did a decent green session last night and tried to figure a couple of things out, and I definitely hit my irons better today. I think I struck the ball better today overall, which was good to see, but I still needed to rely on my short game those last few holes.
“The up-and-down on 16 and the up-and-down on 17 were huge.
“Yeah, just absolutely delighted to be able to get it done. Having a six-shot lead going into the weekend, it would have been a bitter pill to swallow if I wasn’t able to get myself over the finish line.”
When asked what makes this game such a roller coaster from day to day, given he was 12 under for the opening 36 holes and even par for the remainder, McIlroy responded, “I think of all the big sports, I do think it is the most mental. It’s the most challenging mentally.
“I think it’s hard to stay in the same mental space for four days in a row because even — I was in a great mental space, like say on the 13th tee shot, for example. All of my practice rounds up here, the weeks leading into it, Monday, Tuesday, great. I hit two left on Wednesday off the tee. Then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I didn’t sniff hitting the fairway.
“So it’s just that there are little things that happen that just start to make you second-guess things. It’s just very hard to stay on the right — not in the right spot mentally, but the same spot mentally for a long period of time.”
Although he looked calm for much of the day, McIlroy did have his moments of stress on the course today. “I’d say walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was. I think that was the moment of greatest stress. It could go anywhere. It could be anywhere.
“I think we (his caddie Harry Diamond, and he) were both just hoping that my ball wasn’t in a really bad spot or behind a tree. I was just hoping that I had a swing.
“No, it was pretty quiet out there. It was pretty tense. We were just — I was sort of talking about, okay, after the 6th hole, let’s try to get back to even-par for the day after nine. He was trying to encourage me, telling me there’s plenty of time left, just try to keep hitting fairways and greens.
“There wasn’t a ton of talk out there. I think we both knew what we needed to do. I just needed to step up and execute.”
Just on his caddie, it is so great to see McIlroy enjoying so much success with Diamond on the bag. A near lifetime friend, Diamond has copped criticism at times for those who think they know these things about his effectiveness on the bag of McIlroy, but clearly the relationship works a treat, and he is exactly what McIlroy wants in a caddie. No more needs to be said.
McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond – great team – image Masters Tournament
Scheffler was brilliant as he tried to chase the eventual winner down, but his brave final day round of 68 fell just one short.
“I’d say Friday probably hurt the most in terms of my chances of winning,” said Scheffler when assessing the week. “We went out on Thursday, Thursday afternoon, which were some of the most challenging conditions we had all week. I didn’t see many birdies out there Thursday afternoon, so going out on Friday, whatever they did to the greens to soften them up, they did some stuff, and I just wasn’t able to take advantage of that going on early on Friday.
“And then you saw the barrage of birdies that Rory made and Cam Young and a bunch of guys made on Friday late in the day, and I think I finished maybe 2-over par on Friday. So that day probably hurt the most in terms of my chances to win.
“Overall, over the course of the weekend, I did some pretty nice stuff to give myself a chance.”
Jason Day worked himself into genuine contention heading into the final day but he was on the back foot early and when he took double bogey at the 7th after a bogey at the 5th, any chance he had was gone.
Day would eventually finish in a share of 12th but was philosophical about the day.
“Actually played okay. Just didn’t take advantage of two, three,” said Day. “You get birdies there, that obviously changes the storyline a little bit going — then obviously had a mistake on seven.
“Actually hit 13 greens and played pretty good. Just didn’t capitalise on any opportunities. Putted actually quite poorly today. So a little unfortunate, but just how it goes. I mean, pretty positive about my game. Other than just the lack of putting today. But other than that, it was, yeah, okay.
“I know I can play well around here. It’s just obviously when you get the opportunities, just take them. You know, sometimes you have to take them. Sometimes you have to take some unnecessary risk, and sometimes you have to take a step back and play the way you need to play.”
Adam Scott was the only other of the five Australasians to make the weekend and finished in a share of 24th.
“Yeah, I just never really got it going,” said the 45-year-old Queenslander. “I don’t know, overall I guess I blame the putter. (Smiling.)
“But, yeah, just I just didn’t get it rolling on the greens and take advantage of some of the good golf and get any real momentum going. The last three holes on Friday kind of really shut me out of a chance yesterday to kind of get back in it like everyone else got back in it yesterday.”
Rory McIlroy now moves into 12th place on the list of all-time major winners. He sits one behind Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead but it is a fair to assume that there are still several more to come for the 36-year-old.
