McIlroy and Lowry try to accentuate positives as their Masters dreams evaporate
Rory McIlroy at Augusta National Golf Club
Rory McIlroy refuses to admit his 16-year winless Masters streak is a frustration for him and vowed to keep on trying to complete the career Grand Slam and join golf’s immortals.
The Co Down man was remarkably philosophical after a one-under 71 confirmed that, bar a miracle, his tenth bid to become just the sixth man to win all four majors had failed.
“All I can do is come here and try my best,” McIlroy said on a day when 10 mph breezes did not mean easier scoring.
“That's what I do every time I show up. Some years it's better than others. I've just got to keep showing up and try to do the right thing.”
The narrative that Augusta National is tailor-made for McIlroy’s game is now seriously in doubt, and that missed opportunity in 2011, when he took a four-stroke lead into the final round, looks increasingly like a golden opportunity spurned.
There remain serious questions about McIlroy’s ability to flight the ball in the wind and judge distances with his irons with the precision required to don one of those green jackets.
His ten-year major drought, which has come as the game’s playing field has been levelled by new technology, thus nullifying the driving advantage, is also worrying.
His faults were exposed by his first two rounds alongside the impressive Scheffler, whose ambling gait and phlegmatic personality go hand in glove with a game that shows few if any, weaknesses.
The Texan outscored McIlroy by ten strokes over the first two days, but he expertly dodged any admission of frustration.
“No, not really,” he said when asked if such a pairing made life even more difficult. “If anything, it's good because, to have someone beside you that has a great attitude and sort of does everything the right way, it's nice to try to feed off that.”
Two years ago, he closed with a 64 to finish second to Scheffler, and that’s clearly the goal as he heads to the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head next week looking for FedExCup points and some early momentum for the next month’s PGA Championship at Valhalla.
“Just go out and finish on a positive note,” he said of his ambitions today. “Shoot a good round of golf and move on to Hilton Head next week in a good frame of mind, I guess.”
McIlroy was not beating himself up over his failure to take advantage of the par-fives, arguing that the entire field has found them difficult given the prevailing wind direction this week.
Even as Tiger Woods shot a 10-over 82, his highest score ever at the Masters, Shane Lowry could not replicate McIlroy’s philosophical musings for long.
Shane Lowry during the second round of the Masters on Friday. Picture @ Augusta National GC
Disappointed he lost confidence in his putting, he shot a three-over 75 that was only salvaged by an eagle two at the 14th that briefly calmed his fire after bogeys the 10th, 11th and 12th provoked him into tossing a ball into Rae’s Creek in disgust.
“I felt good about myself for ten minutes today,” Lowry said of his hole out from 118 yards at the 14th after he finished his third round on six-over. “That was the only positive about that. Yeah, this game giveth and it taketh away. Yeah, it was nice.
“Obviously I thought after that, if I could make one more birdie and shoot under par, it wouldn't be a bad day, and it quickly went away from me.
“Yeah, disappointing day, but what can you do? I feel like I'm playing the golf to be there or thereabouts, but, yeah, just not scoring well.”
“Scoring” is a euphemism for putting in Lowry’s case and he certainly felt hard done by at the sixth, where he almost holed in one but cruelly ran just off the back and three-putted from there.
“It's been hard and you can beat yourself up about it,” the Offaly man said after he followed that two at the 14th with another short miss and a bogey at the 15th, followed by another dropped shot at the 17th. “I felt a lot of the time every time I got over an eight-footer today it had two feet of break left to right down the hill.
“If you hit it too hard, you look like an idiot, and if you hit it too soft, you look like a bigger idiot. It's mind-numbing out there, honestly. It's just hard. Also, I missed a lot of easy putts, so it's on me as well. “But I lost confidence quickly out there which I hadn't been doing in a while. I'm disappointed in myself for that but yeah, I'll move on.”
As for his two at the 14th, where he drove under the trees on the right but holed a gap wedge from 118 yards, he tried to see the positives.
“That's the thing with this game and this course,” he said. “You need a few breaks along the way. I got one today and hopefully I get a few more tomorrow.”
