On Tuesday afternoon, Rory McIlroy took his place at the Augusta National press room podium and accepted what everyone else already knew: This year is different.
“I guess the best way I can describe it is … for the last 17 years I just couldn’t wait for the tournament to start and this year I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, it’s totally different. I feel a lot calmer.”
For more than a decade the Masters had been a pressure cooker for McIlroy, the missing piece on his major resume, a constant reminder of what he should have had but didn’t. Now? He’s got it. It’s all good. No one is taking that green jacket off. He seems more at ease with it.
But it’s not just McIlroy who is different this year. The whole tournament is. There’s something missing from Augusta National that’s almost always here:
tension.
For decades, Tiger Woods appeared thererge over every event he played, even this one, casting a welcome but massive shadow from his 1997 Masters victory. Phil Mickelson cast a wide shadow of himself, first in his quest to win a major, knock off Woods, win another, and another and another. McIlroy was the heir apparent to their superstar status – but also to the expectation that comes with it. If you’re a golf fan, you remember the way it intensified after McIlroy’s close call in 2011, the way it escalated after he won each of the other three majors. Every year, he came back with the messiest thing of all: Unfinished Business.
But McIlroy’s quest has been fulfilled. neither Forests neither The microphoneKelson is here. Arguably, the two best players of the tournament – Scottie Scheffler AND Jon Rahm — already have green jackets, exempting them from anxiety. The weight of expectation is more divided.
As the dominant world No. 1, Scheffler would be subject to otherworldly expectations, but he’s managed them so far this year, first with his level of play (very good, just not spectacular) and then as a new father (though he says he’s been sleeping well).
The LIV vs. PGA Tour battle for the future of golf is heating up, at least here. When Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau talk about a rivalry, it’s between two individuals, not two leagues. That’s not to say there’s a deal on the horizon to unify professional golf—there are plenty NO there seems to be a deal on the horizon, not even an earnest effort in that direction – but, as these guys like to say, it is what it is.
Some golfers, whose fame could theoretically put them under the most pressure, are playing well at the top, diverting our focus. Jordan Spieth has been good, but not great. Ditto Brooks Koepka.
And the guys who have played well don’t have the fame that would add to the pressure. Cameron Young, Robert MacIntyre, Chris Gotterup, Jacob Bridgeman, Akshay Bhatia – they’re great and they’re on the rise, but they’re not yet loaded with what could be.
there are OTHER USEFUL boys who no doubt feel the weight of expectation. Xander Schauffele came close in 2021, plays his way into the mix almost every year and enters in strong form – when will his Masters come? Ludvig Aberg threatened at each of his first two Masters and has been tentatively labeled a superstar. Bryson DeChambeau certainly has that combination of talent and audience and doesn’t have a green jacket yet. Justin Rose he came closest to it on the field; he is a three-time runner-up and two-time playoff loser, including last year. And then there’s Tommy Fleetwood, who conquered his quest for a PGA Tour victory but still has a major championship dragon to slay.
However, their internal collective pressure is likely to be greater than external; they will only be history if they win, not if they don’t (unless, of course, they put themselves in a position to fail).
But I think it’s good that there is no tension before the tournament. That there is no default main character. Hype Masters creates itself. We can sit back and let it play out, letting the sport’s most famous pitch — which is in particularly perfect condition this year, by the way, with a nice forecast on top — take center stage.
There’s a collective sense of confusion around the media center, where the “experts” are usually lumped in picking a few different players. “Everybody’s picking everybody this year,” one writer told me, summing it up nicely. Count Patrick Reed among the bewildered pundits.
“I definitely feel like this year you have 10 to 12 guys that have a really legitimate shot at winning the green jacket,” he said.
Eventually, the tension will build itself up. First slowly, then quickly. There’s a built-in tension because it’s such a difficult course to navigate, such a difficult tournament to win, such a massive, significant achievement to do so. The tournament will be played. The tension will rise.
It’s okay that it’s not the other way around.
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