It’s difficult to believe that anybody with four major championships since 2011, not to mention the career Grand Slam three-quarters secured, could characterize himself as a veritable supporting actor.
Normally, it might sound like mental gymnastics, the old we’re-the-underdog motivational ploy. Imagine world No. 3 Rory McIlroy as Gilligan, Barney Rubble, Barney Fife or George Costanza. Yeah, it’s impossible. He’s the star, not a sidekick.
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Yet, based on the play of his primary antagonists of late, McIlroy showed up at the Masters this week as something of a subplot, especially compared to last year, when he was seeking to win the title at Augusta National to complete what folks back home have nicknamed the Shamrock Slam.
“I was a part of the narrative instead of being the narrative,” the Northern Irishman said of his perceived status this week, “and I like that position.”
The stealth bomber likes his spot on the scoreboard even more. With the rest of the field struggling mightily to deal with cool weather and unusually stiff winds, McIlroy posted his second straight red-number round with a 1-under 71 on Friday to move within one shot of sputtering leader Jordan Spieth.
After finishing fourth at Augusta last year, McIlroy had much of his thunder stolen by Jason Day and Spieth, who captured three of the majors in 2015 and blew past him in the world rankings. Fans, especially in Europe, were riveted by his pursuit of the green jacket and career slam in Augusta last spring, but, unlike his primary foes, he hasn’t mustered a victory in 2016.
“I definitely feel like I’m coming in here this year without as much hype or anticipation as the way I approached the golf tournament last year,” he said. “You’ve got Jordan coming back as the defending champion, Jason Day getting to No. 1 in the world, Adam [Scott] having a couple of wins….”
After he finished 3 under following a stellar back nine, Irish fans were giddy with anticipation all over again. So was McIlroy, who headed off to the practice range for more work after the round.
McIlroy battled back from some early setbacks, and trailed by as many as eight shots at one point. That said, he has a well-earned rep as a guy who occasionally makes very crooked numbers on his card, a stumbling block that appeared yet again.
He birdied Nos. 2 and 3, then three-putted from 20 feet for a double-bogey on the fourth to wreck his early momentum. If it seems as though he does this all too often, well, congrats. Your memory gets a five-star rating for efficiency. He won’t have much room for similar miscues the rest of the way.
Clearly, he has the firepower to offset major mishaps. Moreover, the ending this time was better, not bitter. McIlroy played the last three holes on Thursday in a sloppy 2 over, but was 3 under over the final six holes a day later.
“I feel great, so much better about myself than I did yesterday,” he said.
Now he’ll be paired for the first time in a weekend round at the majors with Spieth, who won two majors last year, including the Masters. McIlroy tried his best to keep his head down, though not everybody was buying the convenient tone deafness.
“It doesn’t make a difference to me who is up there,” McIlroy said. “I want to finish on the lowest score and win the tournament.”
Spieth clings to lead like Texas Gila Monster
It was ugly, it was uneven, but in the end, Spieth was right where he needed to be – atop the leaderboard heading into the weekend.
Spieth shot a 2-over 74, marking his first over-par round in 10 career trips around Augusta, and stumbled into the weekend one stroke ahead of rival McIlroy. The round wasn’t long on aesthetics and artistry – he only found 10 greens and spent much of the day scrambling to salvage par.
Good thing for him that most of the field was rappelling down the board in such large numbers, they should have been handed gallery ropes to use as handholds. Worse, those who weren’t backing up were mostly stuck in park as the scoring average topped 75. For other automotive analogies, we turn the wheel over to Swedish star Henrik Stenson, who posted this photo of his daughter, purportedly trying to let the air out of Spieth’s truck tires.
Spieth is facing a strong riptide of history, three decades old. Then again, he’s done this before, running out front as a marked man in wire-to-wire fashion last year.
Even though he broke the face of his titanium driver on Wednesday and had to cobble together another one on the fly, Spieth has all but shrugged off all questions about making such a late change, suggesting that his mental outlook is a bit different than most, too. Even Tiger Woods’ old coach is impressed with his ability to tune out potential distractions.
Proven players such as Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Day and Paul Casey all were on his heels at times – or at least standing second on the leaderboard – but found multiple bogeys on the increasingly difficult course as Spieth expanded his lead to five as he neared the turn.
Just when it looked like a complete reprise of 2016, Spieth proved human when he four-putted the fifth for a double-bogey, missing the last three from inside seven feet. He was the last man in the field at the time without a blemish on his card – and the next 10 players on the scoreboard had averaged almost five bogeys (or worse) by that point.
Spieth caught them soon enough. He bogeyed four of the last 10 holes and was ordered by officials to pick up the pace on the back nine.
“It was a mental test today … it was a battle,” he said. “It’s tough to be put on the clock in Amen Corner when you’re trying to battle gusting winds. All in all, the back nine felt a bit rushed.”
As he watched the replay of the back nine with ESPN interviewer Tom Rinaldi, he cracked, “You guys are just mean. This is mean. I gotta relive every single one of these.”
He’ll likely need that sense of humor on the weekend, with McIlroy in his grill.
Familiar start, respectable ending for yips-plagued Els
Ernie Els began his round on Friday in painful, pitiable fashion all over again. After he six-putted the first green from inside four feet in the first round, he three-putted for a double-bogey on Friday, missing another two-footer in the process:
David Leadbetter, who last coached Els roughly a decade ago, said the Big Easy approached him this week in Augusta and asked if they could spend some time together. Els also mentioned that he’d begun working with a new putting coach, and Leadbetter assumed it had been an ongoing relationship.
Turns out, the new short-game coach – Leadbetter said he didn’t know the guy – began working with Els on Tuesday at the tournament site after claiming he could cure his putting yips.
“I think Ernie is a little fragile about it,” Leadbetter told Vice Sports. “And this new guy has him so tied up in knots, he doesn’t know what to do and can’t take the putter back. I think you saw that yesterday on the first hole.”
Even as world No. 2 Spieth torched the Augusta grounds on Friday, it was Els’ putting struggles that were truly burning up social media, climbing into the Twitter top 10 in the United States as the video of his struggles were replayed over and over again. After Els shot 80 in the first round, he and Leadbetter spent several minutes on the Augusta National practice green, and Leadbetter said he mostly tried to keep the mood light and unclutter the four-time major winner’s head.
“I was just trying to get him to forget about it,” said Leadbetter, who coaches female world No. Lydia Ko, among others. “Clear your head, keep breathing.
“Honestly, he’s got to simplify things, not complicate things.”
Els backed off his first short putt a couple of times Thursday before he six-putted. Friday, he hit a fan in the head with his approach shot before finishing with a six on opening hole. But he rebounded to shoot 73, a respectable number, though he still missed the cut by a mile at 9 over.
He said he was embarrassed when he showed up on Friday. And said his compatriots “looked at me as if I didn’t have any pants on.”
Only last week, Els led the field in putting percentage from inside 10 feet, missing twice in 72 holes. Yeah, this game is for masochists, for sure.
World No. 1 just trying to ‘survive’
Bothered by an ailing back, Day took advantage of the dreadfully slow pace of play (which hovered around 5:15) to lie down in the second fairway to stretch out, moments after he had smoked his tee shot 358 yards.
It was again his back nine, not his back side, however, that caused the biggest pains of all. The runaway favorite to win this week after recording wins in his last two starts and a runner-up finish at Augusta last spring, Day stumbled yet again on Friday with a 3-over 39 on the closing nine.
The world No. 1 has played the traditionally vulnerable back nine in a combined 8 over through two rounds, with one birdie. There was no real need to dissect his game otherwise. He is 1 over and five shots back.
“It’s really tricky,” Day said of the blustery day. “You don’t know where the wind is coming from. Coming home is a tough stretch, as well. I’m trying my best just to survive right now.” With Spieth backup up to the field, he did just that.
Garcia again having a star-crossed week in Georgia
Sergio Garcia famously complained five years ago at the Masters that he didn’t have what it takes to win a major championship. Sure, it was a comment born of frustration, since he’s come close several times, including a sudden-death loss at the British Open, but when he moved into second place early in the second round Friday, most astute fans had an inkling of what might happen next.
Garcia had just birdied the eighth hole and moved to 4 under overall when he made the same mistake three times on the ninth hole.
Sergio Garcia made a mistake on the 9th hole. Then made it again…and again pic.twitter.com/ZF0c3Y5N77
— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) April 8, 2016
Garcia finished with a 75 and at even par overall, remaining within four shots heading into the weekend.
Greatest event in golf, with the worst coverage
Yet again, Augusta National’s minimalist approach to its television coverage bit fans in the backside on Friday when key players such as Spieth and McIlroy’s rounds went largely uncovered by the club’s early online coverage.
By the time ESPN’s coverage in the States began at 3 p.m., McIlroy was midway through his back nine and Spieth had just made his first mistake of the week, a double-bogey on the fifth hole. If it’s any consolation to increasingly frustrated American viewers who have grown used to the wall-to-wall live feeds from other major championships, the coverage internationally is just as brief.
Comings and goings
While most of the attention this week as far as the 50-something set has been focused on Tom Watson, one of the greatest players of the past half-century, another Masters mainstay said Friday that’s he’s played his last Masters, too.
Welshman Ian Woosnam, who won the title in 1991, at the height of Europe’s dominance of the event, said after the second round that he’s finished as a competitor. He missed the cut for the 14th time in his last 15 starts after shooting 82-81. He hasn’t been physically sound in years.
“I am in pain all the way around, so it’s time to say bye-bye,” Woosnam, 58, told The Scotsman. “That’s my last go. I am not fit enough to play with my bad back.
“It’s time for me to sit back and watch. I’ll still keep coming to the tournament, obviously. It’s a shame to finish off playing like that but you can only do your best. Never mind, I’ve still got a green jacket.”
Watson, 66, a two-time Masters winner who announced months ago that he would not play in the event after this week, finished 8 over to miss the cut by two shots. The eight-time major winner was met on the 18th hole by his family, several friends from his PGA Tour career, a handful of club officials and a sustained, emotional, standing ovation.
He played an amazing 2,148 tournament holes at Augusta over 43 years and finished with a par on the 18th.
Lefty feeling left out after late collapse
For the first hour on Friday morning, Phil Mickelson’s army of fans were dreaming of a fourth green jacket. Four hours later, he was packing his bags for home. In the biggest collapse of the week, Mickelson went from the first page of the leaderboard to missing the cut, the result of a brutal series of mistakes.
When Mickelson birdied the third hole, he improved to 1 under for the tournament and climbed into the top five. By day’s end, he had posted a 79 to miss by one shot. It was a catastrophic collapse, with poor bunker shots and water balls, even by Mickelson’s mercurial standards. He played a 10-hole stretch in the middle of the round at 9 over, a run that included three double-bogeys.
Mickelson, 45, drew some smirks when he showed up for the round dressed entirely in gray. By the end of the day, even his mood matched his attire.
