If Rory McIlroy was hoping to fly under the radar heading into the Masters next month, as has been the case before, he possibly should not have won twice on two of the most iconic courses in the USA in the weeks before heading down Magnolia Lane.
McIlroy has tried many different approaches to the one major championship that has eluded him and which stands between the Co Down golfer and a version of immortality in the storied history of men’s professional golf.
Only five players – Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods – have managed the feat, men at the forefront of the ‘greatest of all time’ (GOAT) conversations.
It’s his career-defining ambition to become the sixth member of that club and if a somewhat muted celebration of his Players Championship win tells us something, it’s that Augusta is never too far from his mind even in the course of winning that substantial, if not major, title.
McIlroy will now have to embrace what appears to be a legitimate favourites tag for the Masters.
None of the world’s top ten are firing on as many cylinders as he is right now, in particular the two dominant players of 2024, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who are both struggling to find form after returning from injuries.
While Jon Rahm, Bryson De Chambeau and Brooks Koepka have all played well in LIV events so far this year, it’s hard to quantify just how that pertains to form entering the Masters.
Although it’s drawn from a fairly small sample size of five tournaments, McIlroy’s ‘strokes gained’ statistical average on the PGA Tour so far in 2025 (+2.65) is above what it was in his best years of 2012 and 2014.
He readily admitted after his win at Sawgrass that he has elevated parts of his game that have not always been his strength – namely putting, ‘around the green’ efficiency and how and when he employs conservative and aggressive strategies in a round.
However, the mantle of being favourite for the Masters will bring a whole new set of other variables into play before a ball is struck in the first round.
He has often been a notoriously slow starter around Augusta where he was a combined 9-over par for his first two rounds in 2023 and 2024 – a scenario which blew him out of contention before the weekend on each occasion, let alone the back nine on Sunday.
He has also failed to shoot better than 71 in the six rounds which have followed his blistering closing 64 in 2022 which clinched his best-ever finish in the Masters, a runners-up spot.
All the pre-Augusta form and all the good omens count for only so much when pent up anticipation needs to be controlled as the first major in over eight months looms, but at least he now appears to have all the physical ball-striking tools to win, assuming he reins in some recent wayward driving.
His flighting of shots at the right trajectory, particularly short wedges, and working the ball from left to right or vice-versa are elements he feels he has improved upon considerably and will be critical skills in the chess game that can be the essence of the challenge of Augusta National.
Then there’s his recent marked improvement on the greens and at Sawgrass he was in the top ten of the ‘strokes gained putting’ statistical category for the second PGA Tour event in a row.
That last happened for him in 2022, so even that delicate nuanced, sometimes elusive skillset, looks to be dialled in.
Now, it’s a matter of training his mind to be quiet in the storm that will surely come.
