The ink was long dry on Mason Howell’s first Masters story, when he witnessed his idol, Rory McIlroysend a bolt of lightning Augusta National.
Sitting at 9-over with just over a hole to play in his second round, Howell stood on the side of the 17th green and waited for McIlroy to play his tee shot to the back of the left pin. McIlroy, then leading by four, dropped the ball halfway to the hole and watched as luck took him the rest of the way. As the ball rolled into the bottom of the cup, McIlroy raised his wedge to salute a crowd going ballistic as the defending champion walked into the crowd to finish. take a six-shot lead into the weekend.
There was Howell, the US amateur champion, with just one hole left in his tournament, trying to stay in his stride but smiling at having a front-row seat at Augusta National.
“You have to stay in your lane, but it’s hard not to look at that,” Howell said after missing the cut. “That chip-in on 17 was unreal. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in sports and I got to witness it in person, so it was great.”
Howell’s tournament began with him showing McIlroy a golf ball to the defending champion had thrown Howell at the 2016 Tour Championshipwhen Howell was nine years old. As Howell noted his opening tee shot at Augusta National, the 18-year-old said he “couldn’t feel his arms,” ​​so he tried to swing as hard as he could to make sure the ball got there. As Howell made contact, his Ping hat came off his head and the ball sailed into the ninth fairway. Howell and McIlroy shared a laugh as they emerged from the tee box and the high school senior’s first Masters experience began with a par and a walk alongside his golf hero.
Howell shot an opening-round 5-over 77 and backed it up with a 76 on Friday to miss the cut by five. Howell’s best moment came Friday on the par-3 12th hole, when he stuck his putt for birdie. The day before, Howell hit his tee shot into the back bunker and made two. He absorbed all of Augusta’s lessons he could, but it wouldn’t be enough.
That little birdie moved Howell to within four strokes of the cut, but a bogey on the par-5 13th ended his hopes for a weekend at Augusta. That’s okay, though, because by the time Howell’s Masters fate was clear, McIlroy was embarking on a seven-hole stretch in which he made six birdies to go from tying for the lead to six clear. Watching the player he grew up idolizing take apart Augusta National is something that will forever be burned into Howell’s memory. Its result is irrelevant.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better two days,” Howell said. “Obviously, I’d like to play a little bit better, but playing alongside Rory and Cam (Young) and seeing the show they put on, that’s something I’ll remember forever and something I can go home and learn from and just push myself to work harder.”
When Howell reached last year’s semifinals at the US Amateur Club in Olympic, he knew two wins along San Francisco’s Lake Merced meant an April meeting with defending Masters champion McIlroy. Howell beat Eric Lee 3 and 2 in the semifinals and then rolled Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 to set up a once-in-a-lifetime.
That 36-hole outing with McIlroy ended Friday night, when McIlroy poured in one last birdie and then gave Howell some words of encouragement as he prepared for the next phase of his golf journey at the University of Georgia and, eventually, the professional ranks.
“Rory was great,” Howell said. “He said, ‘I hope to see you on the line. We’re going to play some practice rounds coming up.’ So, I couldn’t be more grateful to be paired with Rory this week and how much I learned from his game.
“I mean, it was such a special moment for me to play with my idol. I mean, yeah, other than making the cut for me, it was everything I dreamed it would be.”
McIlroy built the largest ever 36-hole lead at the Masters with Howell riding it. For fifty-two weeks, we wondered what McIlroy’s Masters release would look like after he finally exorcised his demons last April. To us, it looked like rounds of 67 and 65, while ranking 90th out of 91 in driving accuracy. McIlroy called it a “state of flux” and knows he still has a long way to go.
But from what Howell saw, the next two days are likely to be a coronation for a Rory McIlroy who is finally making Augusta National love him again.
“Now he has all the weight off his shoulders,” Howell said. “He’s playing so carefree and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t this weekend.”
