AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Golden Bear knows a thing or two about Augusta National. After all, Jack Nicklaus won The Masters six times and made 52 starts during his illustrious career.
So when he picked Rory McIlroy to win earlier on Thursday morning, it came as no surprise. Both Gary Player and Tom Watson picked him to complete the career Grand Slam, something he has been trying to do for 11 years now.
But Nicklaus, who admitted to having a recent conversation with McIlroy about how to play the golf course, provided a warning sign about the current World No. 2.
“The discipline is what Rory has lacked, in my opinion. He’s got all the shots. He’s got all the game. He certainly is as talented as anybody in the game,” Nicklaus cautioned.
“But if you look, go back and see his history the last few years, he gets to a place a lot of times when an eight or a seven pops up, and that keeps you from getting to where he needs to go.
“I’m a big fan of Rory’s and I like Rory a lot, so that’s what I think. But I think obviously Scottie Scheffler is just coming back in again. He’s a defending champion, there’s nobody playing any better in the game than Scottie. Between the two of them, I think you’re going to find your winner.”
When McIlroy torched another drive down the 15th fairway, he was 4-under par and in a tie with Scheffler, who already posted a 4-under 68 earlier in the day. Another birdie on 15 looked plausible, and the ‘Rory-Scottie’ show that ESPN’s Curtis Strange predicted looked to live up to the billing, at least through round one.
Then McIlroy airmailed the 15th green, which is one of the newer surfaces on the course. He laced a 4-iron from 238 yards out, but instead of trying to play a high-fade, which lands softer, he hammered a piercing draw. His approach skipped over the 15th green and landed about 10 yards beyond the surface, in a similar location to where Patrick Cantlay chipped it into the frontside pond moments before.
McIlroy suffered the same fate.
He hammered his chip-shot, which rolled into the water, leaving McIlroy to write down an aggravating ‘seven’ when it should have been a five at worst.
Two holes later, McIlroy air-mailed his approach again.
And once more, he hammered his chip-shot 20 feet past the flag stick and then three-putted for a double-bogey six.
In the blink of an eye, McIlroy went from possibly improving his score to 5-under to plummeting down to even par for the championship. He signed for a 72.
Nicklaus’ warning came true.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
