Publisher’s note: This story was initially published in April 2023.
Cnn
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Driven on his club, his head buried in his arm, Rory McILroy looked at the edge of tears.
The 21 -year -old had just watched his ball sink into the waters of Rae’s Creek in Augusta National and with her, his dream of winning the Masters, a dream that looked so randomly close to hours earlier.
As quadruple major winner and one of the most decorated names in the history of sport, few players would refuse the chance to exchange places with McILroy before Augusta this week.
However, on Sunday afternoon of April 10, 2011, not a golfer in the world would not have liked to be in Irish shoes in the North.
A McILroy with a fresh vadrouille head had landed in Georgia for the first major of the season with a reputation for the main light of the next generation of stars.
An excellent 2010 had marked its best season since its return three years earlier, underlined by a first victory of PGA Tour at the Quail Hollow Championship and a crucial contribution to the triumph of the Europe team at the Ryder Cup.
However, despite a pair of impressive finishes among the first three in the Open and PGA championship respectively, a disappointing missed cut at the Masters – the first to a major – served as a disturbing prefiguration.
McILroy pulled 74 and 77 to fall four strokes from the seven pair cutting line, a performance that concerned him enough to take a brief sabbatical of the competition.
But a year later in 2011, all the demons of persistent masters seemed to have been exorcised while McILroy flew around the fairways of Augusta.
After having opened with a sept-nevertheless of Boggey-the first time he had pulled in the 1960s to the Major-McILroy took the front of the Spanish co-leader of the first Alvaro Quirós round with a second round 69.
He sent it in the weekend by holding a two-stroke cushion on Jason Day from Australia, with Tiger Woods another blow behind and back in search of a major 15th after a second round 66.
And yet, the 21 -year -old chief looked perfectly at ease with a target on the back. Even after a provisional start in the third round, McILroy joined three birdies through the six closing holes to stretch his advance at four strokes before Sunday.
The young person was alone before a group hunting pack including the day, ángel Cabrera, Kj Choi and Charl Schwartzel. After 54 holes, McILroy had only pulled three Bogeys.
“This is an excellent position to be in … I finally feel comfortable on this golf course,” McILroy told journalists.
“I don’t get ahead of myself, I know how the tracks can decrease very quickly. I have to go there, take nothing to grant and go out and play as hard as I played the last three days. If I can do it, I hope things will go in my sense.
“We will see what’s going on tomorrow because four shots on this golf course are not so much.”
The truth can hurt, and McILroy was about to prove that his Augusta assessment is true in the most atrocious way imaginable.
His fourth Bogey of the week arrived immediately. Having admitted to expect nerves during the first tee, McILroy sparked a booming opening on the fairway, only to miss his five -foot putt.
Three consecutive pars ruled the ship, but Schwartzel was on the wind in its sails. A beginning of the Birdie, by Aigle, by Aigle had seen it draw at the level of the summit after its third hole.
A subsequent Bogey of the South African slowed down his charge, while McILroy clung to an advance at a blow to the turn of Schwartzel, Cabrera, Choi, and an unleashed wood, which pulled five birdies and an Aigle through the nine front to send Augusta to a frenzy.
Despite his advantage in decline and the Rauque Tiger-Mania Din in front of him, McILroy had responded to another Bogey in the 5th hole, draining a brilliant 20-foot putt in the 7th to restore his advance.
The fist pump that followed scored the high point of McILroy’s round, while a sliding start accelerated in a free fall in the 10th hole per four.
His blow of the tee went to submit to a tree, ricochet to settle between the white cabins which separate the main dish from the adjacent par-three course. He offered viewers an overview of a game of Augusta rarely seen in the broadcast, followed by photos of McILroy, anxiously exhiglant from behind a tree to follow his tracking plan.
Although his initial escape succeeded, another collision with a tree and a two shots on the green have seen a McILroy finally amazed to draw for a triple Bogey. Having led the ground a hole and seven shots earlier, he arrived at the 11th tee in seventh.
When his tee conducted in the 13th plunged into the stream, all the thoughts of which could be the recipient of the green jacket had long moved away from the young anxious. It had taken him seven putts to sail in the two previous greens, while a Bogey and a double Bogey dropped him to five sub -sous – the score he had detained after only 11 holes of the tournament.
Fortunately, the last five holes have passed without major incident. A failed putt for Five Five Birdie in the final hole summed up McILroy’s day, although he received a catchy reception when he left green.
A few minutes earlier, the same crowd had broken out while Schwartzel sank his fourth consecutive to seal his first major title. After starting the day four shots drifted from McILroy, the South African finished 10 shots in front of him, and two before the second Australian duo Jason Day and Adam Scott.
The eight verses 80 of McILroy marked the highest scoring in the round. Having titled the ranking for most of the week, he finished the 15th.
Tears would flow during a telephone call with his parents the next morning, but during his press conference McILroy was optimistic.
“I am very disappointed at the minute, and I am sure I will be for the next few days, but I recover,” he said.
“I was heading this golf tournament with nine holes to go, and I’m just untangled … It’s a Sunday to a major, which he can do.
“This is my first experience, and I hope that the next time I will be in this position, I will be able to manage it a little better. I have not managed it particularly well today, but it was a day of character creation … I will get out of it stronger for that.”
Again, McILroy would be right.
Barely eight weeks later in June, Mcilroy was unleashed at an eight -blow victory at the US Open. Records fell in his wake at the Congress, when he shot a 16-268 tournament record to become the youngest winner of Tiger Woods at Masters in 1997.
The historic victory launched an era of gold for McILroy. After taking place in another eight -blow victory in the PGA championship in 2012, McILroy has become the third golfer since 1934 to win three majors at the age of 25 with Triomphe in the 2014 open championship.
Before the end of the year, he would add his fourth major title with another victory in the PGA championship.
And a large part was due to this fateful afternoon in Augusta. In an interview with the BBC in 2015, McILroy nicknamed him “the most important day” of his career.
“If I hadn’t had all the detangling, if I had just done some bogeys going down and lost by one, I would not have learned as much.
“Fortunately, it didn’t take me for a long time to get into a position like that again when I directed a major and I was able to cross the line comfortably. It was a huge learning curve for me and I needed it, and fortunately, I was able to move on to bigger and better things.
“Looking back what happened in 2011, it doesn’t seem so bad when you have four majors on your fireplace.”
Mcilroy’s contentment came with a warning: it would be “unthinkable” if he did not win the masters of his career.
However, while he is preparing for his 15th appearance in Augusta National this week, a green jacket remains an elusive article of his wardrobe.
Despite seven top 10 in its last 10 masters, the trophy remains the only thing that separates McILroy from joining the ranks of Golf Immortals to have finished the Grand Slam of the Golf Quarry in the Modern era: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
A finalist at Scottie Scheffler last year marked the best finish of McILroy in Augusta, but in 2011 probably remains the closest he has ever been of victory. A slow start in 2022 noted that McILroy had started to decide 10 Sunday shots at the drift of the Americans, who died out for his last hole with a five -stroke advance despite the brilliant 64 of McILroy.
At 33, time is still on the other hand. Although 2022 has extended his major drought at eight years old, he probably presented his best golf course since this golden season in 2014.
And as McILroy knows it better than most, things can change quickly to Augusta National.