Rory McIlroy needed some reassurance after a shaky ending to his first round at Augusta – and the support he received helped pave the way for his stunning victory. McIlroy achieved his lifetime goal of winning the Masters by beating Justin Rose in a play-off on Sunday, but there had been a lot of work put in prior to that dramatic ending.
The Northern Irishman started shakily on Thursday, carding double bogeys on two of his final four holes to record an even-par round of 72. Having played nicely up until then, he began to question himself. It was a personal crisis that could have derailed his pursuit of the final piece of his career Grand Slam.
Thankfully, the 35-year-old knew who to turn to. As well as working with caddie Harry Diamond throughout his career, McIlroy has put his trust in sports psychologist Dr Bob Rotella. So after being rattled by his mini-collapse in the final few holes on Thursday, he knew who to text.
“Thursday was a really big thing,” Rotella told The Daily Mail. “We have spoken a lot about resilience and how you come back from disappointment. It is an area we talk about all of the time.
“What happened in his first round was always going to be an example of that. I texted him to get some sleep and we would speak in the morning.”
Rotella is hugely experienced in golf, having previously worked with Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke, and he did manage to speak with McIlroy on Friday morning. They met in a room in the caddie building by the driving range at Augusta National, where Rotella delivered some positive messaging.
“I saw him and gave him a bear hug,” Rotella said. “The first thing I mentioned was, ‘You cannot let two holes define how you view the round’. We spoke about how good he had been. The shots that he went for and worked out. He was actually upbeat – he knew he was playing well. But he was heartbroken by the mistakes so the emphasis is to look at what had gone well.
“The second thing we spoke about was comebacks. The greatest stories we tell in sport are the comebacks. I told him, ‘It was time for a gut check’, as we call it here. How resilient are you? Am I strong enough to go out there again and be ready for the test?
“I said to him, ‘You have to have a steel will, be unbreakable, because this game can rip out your heart’. I think he enjoys those moments, those tests. He showed what he has on Friday.”
McIlroy shot a classy round of 66 on Friday to get right back into contention and publicly credited Rotella afterwards. “I had a good conversation with Bob Rotella about not pushing too hard too early, just tried to stay really, really patient and that was rewarded with a nice little stretch in the middle of the round,” he said.
He went from strength to strength from there, and despite some wobbles in the tense final round and a missed putt on the 18th green, McIlroy got the job done at the first attempt in the play-off with Rose to lift a weight off his shoulders.
“Yeah, look, it was a heavy weight to carry,” he explained. “And thankfully now I don’t have to carry it and it frees me up and I know I’m coming back here every year, which is lovely.”
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