Augusta, GA – The sun hung low over Augusta National on Friday, casting long shadows across the manicured fairways as Rory McIlroy stood on the 15th tee, four shots off Justin Rose’s lead in the opening round of the 89th Masters.
At 4-under par through 14 holes, the world No. 2 was crafting a story of redemption. His drives were finding fairways, his irons were crisp, and the weight of a decade-long major drought seemed, for a moment, to lift. The career Grand Slam, that elusive green jacket, felt tantalizingly close. Then, in a span of four holes, Augusta’s cruel magic unraveled McIlroy’s round, turning promise into a hauntingly familiar nightmare.
The par-5 15th beckoned, and McIlroy’s drive was solid, leaving him a manageable second shot to set up a lay-up chip shot. But as he surveyed his third shot, doubt crept in — a flicker of indecision that Augusta pounces on. Opting for a conservative chip to the fat of the green, McIlroy misjudged the slope. The ball skittered across the lightning-fast surface, picking up speed as if drawn by some malevolent force. It plunged into the pond guarding the front, ripples spreading like a mocking laugh. The patrons gasped, and McIlroy’s shoulders slumped. A drop, a penalty stroke, and a shaky pitch later, he faced a treacherous putt for bogey. McIlroy missed it. Double-bogey 7 was scrawled on the scorecard. In mere minutes, his 4-under had crumbled to 2-under, and the momentum he’d built over hours vanished.
Shaken but resolute, McIlroy seemed to steady the ship with a two-putt par on the par-3 16th.
But the 17th rocked the ship. McIlroy’s drive found the right rough, his ball nestled among pine straw, forcing an awkward stance. His approach was a desperate heave, sailing long. His chip from the fringe rolled 28 feet past, and the par putt that followed sailed by. A 6-foot bogey putt missed. Another double bogey, a crushing 6, left him at even-par. His face, usually brimming with boyish charm masking his 35 years, was now one of frustration, eyes fixed on some distant point as if searching for answers Augusta refused to give.
As McIlroy trudged off the 18th with a par and a opening-day score of even-par 72, the Augusta dusk seemed to mirror his mood — fading, heavy with what might have been. He’d been 4-under, a contender, a man poised to silence the doubters. But in those final four holes — double bogey, par, double bogey, par — Augusta had exacted its toll, exposing the fragility that’s haunted his Masters quest.
The patrons offered polite applause, but the air carried an unspoken truth: McIlroy’s Grand Slam dreams, so vivid at 3 p.m., now flickered in the lengthening shadows, with three rounds left to rewrite a story that felt all too familiar.
