editor’s Note: This story was originally published in April 2023.
cnn
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Leaning over his club, head buried in his arm, Rory McIlroy was on the verge of tears.
The then-21-year-old had recently watched his ball sink into the waters of Rae Creek at Augusta National and with it came his dream of winning The Masters, a dream that had seemed so tempting just hours earlier.
As a four-time major winner and one of the most iconic names in the history of the game, few players would turn down the chance to swap places with McIlroy at Augusta this week.
Yet on Sunday afternoon, April 10, 2011, no golfer in the world wanted to be in the Northern Irishman’s shoes.
A fresh-faced, mop-topped McIlroy arrived in Georgia for the season’s first major with a reputation as a leading light for the next generation of stars.
He had his best performances in 2010 since turning professional three years earlier, including his first PGA Tour victory at the Quail Hollow Championship and contributing significantly to Team Europe’s victory at the Ryder Cup.
Yet despite a pair of impressive top-three finishes at the Open and PGA Championship respectively, a disappointing missed cut at The Masters – his first at a major – served as an ominous foreboding.
McIlroy shot 74 and 77 and finished four strokes shy of the cut line at seven-over par, a performance that worried him enough to take some time off from competition.
But a year later in 2011, when McIlroy flew around the Augusta fairways, it seemed all the Masters demons had been exorcised.
After opening with a bogey-free seven-under 65 – the first time he had shot 60 in a major – McIlroy followed with a 69 in the second round to move ahead of Spanish first-round co-leader Álvaro Quirós.
It sent him into the weekend holding a two-shot cushion over Australia’s Jason Day, with Tiger Woods a further stroke back in search of a 15th major after rising to a second-round 66.
And yet the 21-year-old leader looked completely comfortable with a target on his back. Despite a tentative start to the third round, McIlroy extended his lead to four strokes Sunday with three birdies on the final six holes.
The youngster struck out all alone ahead of a chasing pack of Day, Angel Cabrera, KJ Choi and Charl Schwartzel. After 54 holes, McIlroy had only three bogeys.
“It’s a great situation… I finally feel comfortable on this golf course,” McIlroy told reporters.
“I’m not getting ahead of myself, I know how leads can dwindle very quickly. I have to go out there, take nothing for granted and go out and play as hard as I have the last three days. If I can do that, hopefully things will go my way.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow because four shots is not a lot on this golf course.”
The truth can hurt, and McIlroy was about to prove his assessment of Augusta true in the most painful way imaginable.
His fourth bogey of the week came immediately. After expecting some jitters off the first tee, McIlroy launched a fast opening drive down the fairway but missed his putt by five feet.
Three consecutive pars kept the ship steady, but Schwartzel had wind in his sails. A tremendous birdie, par, eagle start had him tied for the lead after his third hole.
The South African’s late bogey slowed his attack, as McIlroy took a one-shot lead over Schwartzel, Cabrera, Choi and a furious Woods, who shot five birdies and an eagle on the front nine to send Augusta into a frenzy.
Despite his dwindling advantage and the Tiger-mania noise ahead of him, McIlroy responded well to another bogey on the 5th hole, and restored his lead with a spectacular 20-foot putt on the 7th hole.
The fist pump that followed marked the high-water point of McIlroy’s round, as a sliding start accelerated into a full-blown free-fall on the par-four 10th hole.
His tee shot hit a tree that nestled among the white cabins that separate the main course from the adjacent par-three course. It gave viewers a glimpse of a part of Augusta rarely seen in the broadcast, followed by photos of McIlroy anxiously peeking from behind a tree to track his follow-up shot.
Although his initial escape was successful, McIlroy, stunned by another collision with a tree and a two-putt on the green, ultimately tapped in for triple bogey. After leading the field one hole and seven shots ahead, he reached the 11th tee in seventh.
By the time his tee drive fell into the creek on the 13th, all thoughts of who might be the recipient of the green jacket had long gone from the tormented young man. It took him seven putts to navigate the last two greens, as a bogey and a double bogey dropped him to five-under – a score he held after just 11 holes of the tournament.
Mercifully, the final five holes passed without any major incidents. A missed putt for birdie from five feet on the final hole summed up McIlroy’s day, although he received a standing ovation upon leaving the green.
Just minutes earlier, the same crowd had erupted as Schwartzel made his fourth consecutive birdie to win his first major title. After starting the day four shots behind McIlroy, the South Africans finished 10 shots ahead of him, and two shots ahead of second-placed Australian pair Jason Day and Adam Scott.
McIlroy’s score of eight-over 80 was the highest score of the round. After dominating the leaderboard for most of the week, he finished tied for 15th.
There were tears in his eyes during a phone conversation with his parents the next morning, but McIlroy was upbeat at his press conference.
“I’m very disappointed right now and I’m sure I’ll be disappointed for the next few days, but I’ll get over it,” he said.
“I was leading this golf tournament with nine holes left, and I just realized… it’s a major Sunday, what it can do.
“This is my first experience at this, and hopefully the next time I’m in this position I’ll handle it a little better. Obviously I didn’t handle it particularly well today, but it was a character-building day… I’ll come out stronger for it.”
Once again, McIlroy would be proven right.
Just eight weeks later in June, McIlroy won the US Open by eight shots. His record declined at Congressional, as he shot a tournament record of 16-under 268 to become the youngest major winner since Tiger Woods at The Masters in 1997.
This historic victory marked the beginning of a golden era for McIlroy. After scoring another eight-shot victory at the PGA Championship in 2012, McIlroy became only the third golfer since 1934 to win three major titles at the age of 25 with a win at the 2014 Open Championship.
Before the year was out, he would add his fourth major title with another PGA Championship victory.
And much of it was that fateful afternoon in Augusta. In an interview with the BBC in 2015, McIlroy called it “the most important day” of his career.
“If I hadn’t understood the whole thing, if I had just made a few bogeys and lost by one, I wouldn’t have learned as much.
“Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to get back to the position where I was headed for a major and I was able to cross the line fairly comfortably. It was a big learning curve for me and I needed it, and thankfully I’ve been able to move on to bigger and better things.
“Given what happened in 2011, it doesn’t seem so bad when you have four heads on your mantlepiece.”
McIlroy’s satisfaction came with a caveat: It would be “unimaginable” if he did not win a Masters in his career.
Yet as he prepares for his 15th appearance at Augusta National this week, the green jacket remains a missing item from his wardrobe.
Despite seven top 10 finishes in his last 10 Masters appearances, the trophy is the only thing separating McIlroy from joining the ranks of golf’s immortals who have completed all four of golf’s major career Grand Slams in the modern era: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Last year’s runner-up finish to Scottie Scheffler was McIlroy’s best finish at Augusta, yet 2011 is arguably the closest he has ever come to a win. The slow start to 2022 meant McIlroy began Sunday’s deciding round 10 shots behind the American, who went into his final hole with a five-shot lead despite McIlroy’s impressive 64 finish.
At the age of 33, time is still on his side. Although 2022 extended his major drought to eight years, it was arguably his best golf since that golden season of 2014.
And as McIlroy knows better than anyone, things can change fast at Augusta National.