Rory McIlroy helped create a remarkable moment in golf when he won the 2022 Tour Championship, overcoming Shane Scheffler’s six shot lead. This very special championship will take place at the iconic Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia on April 6th through 9th. All four rounds can be watched live with text commentary on Sport News Center`s website and heard via radio every day from Thursday to Sunday.
Rory McIlroy is trying to get all four major titles in his career, but it has been so long since he got one that it feels like he has never won any of them. This last happened in August 2014 at the US PGA Championship. He’s asking himself “If not this year then when?” because it’s taking so long.
Although it may seem miss a long time ago, the 33-year-old pro golfer is still one of the greatest in the game. He has also become a very important figure in golf and he has been managing things on the course carefully due to the great amount of money being spent. For now, he has put aside any politics to focus on retaining the PGA Tour’s high rankings.
For the last month, he has been preparing and planning for next Sunday evening when he will hopefully get to wear the iconic Green Jacket. Then in March, instead of getting his driver working correctly, he was focused on planning for the tour, which caused him to miss a cut at the Players! But since then, all attention has been on Augusta.
Recently, Rory McIlroy achieved a third-place finish at the WGC Match Play in Austin with a golf club of slightly shorter shaft. He also changed his putter to the traditional shape he had used to win four majors previously, which has been producing good performance on the greens. Additionally, he has made two visits to Augusta and reportedly needed only 19 putts across all holes during one practice round.
Sometimes in the past, he tried not to make too much of The Masters tournament as if it’s no different from any other event. But things have changed in 2023. He is feeling more energised because last year, his best ever finish at The Masters was second place and he scored a great shot at the 72nd green to clinch it.
McIlroy expressed how pleased and content he was when he left the Georgia course (which has held this major tournament since 1934) happily. This is unlike his experience in 2011 where he had a difficult time during the finals and ended up being tied 15th even though he had been leading by four strokes. Then after two months, he had an amazing win at the US Open with 8 shots difference.
Golfer Rory McIlroy usually does well at Augusta and is good at hitting long shots. Due to the expected rain, the course will be longer than usual this year which means it will measure 7,545 yards – a record length after they have added an extra 35 yards on the 13th hole.
Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion said that it is not going to be as exciting. People will have to lay up and add extra distance when they hit the ball. But on Sunday afternoon, if golfers are really brave, they can try to get an eagle by hitting the ball to the green in two shots. Bobby Jones, co-founder of Augusta described this move as ‘momentous’.
Last year, McIlroy took three shots on a hole and it gave him a chance to challenge Scottie Scheffler who was in the lead. Amen Corner which consists of holes 11, 12 and 13 could ultimately decide who will be the winner.
McIlroy was very happy with his result, but he was also annoyed that he couldn’t make more shots using his driver after the birdie on the last hole. Scheffler on the other hand could still win by three shots even if he four-putted the last one. It was an incredible first major event for Scheffler, and now he is still at the top of the world rankings.
In February, he won the Phoenix Title for a second time, and last month, he beat out everyone by five strokes to become champion of The Players Tournament. His impressive performance makes it likely that he will be just the fourth person ever – after Jack Nicklaus (1965 and 1966), Nick Faldo (1989 and 1990) and Tiger Woods (2001 and 2002) – to successfully defend their Masters title.
At the start of the year, Jon Rahm was playing really well. He had won five games out of nine in tournaments. One of his recent victories happened at Riviera Country Club, and it is usually a sign to how he’ll do at the Masters. In fact, in the last five years, he has almost always been among the top 10 players at Augusta. Rahm has all that it takes to follow in the footsteps of famous Spanish golfers like Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia who were able to host Champions Dinners there.
On Tuesday night, there are going to be six past winners who have competed in the men’s game that are going to eat delicious food like sliders, shrimp, rib eye and red fish. It will be really exciting to see how the people around them react when they find out that some of these guests are famous – like Phil Mickelson ( who has won three times ), Bubba Watson (twice ) and Dustin Johnson ( 2020 victor ).
It will be interesting to see how the players perform in these three tournaments. These are 54-hole events with no eliminations and prize money for everyone, but will the participants have practiced enough to do well? Cameron Smith, who won the Open championship, hasn’t done well in the past three LIV tournaments compared to his usual performance. That’s why he is not one of the favourites to win this week.
The Australian golfer knows that all the new recruits have to do a good job. Are they just playing casually or are they more focused on competing against each other for the $4 million jackpots? We will soon find out, since 18 of those new recruits have been included in the competition – one of these players even managed to win 5 years ago when he played with McIllroy at the same time.
Riviera and the Emirates Course in the Middle East are examples of great golf courses which can prepare you for Augusta. In 2016, Danny Willet from Britain won both tournaments which was followed by Sergio Garcia a year later. Most recently in January, McIlroy beat Reed at the Dubai Desert Classic making it his only title of the year so far. Are these results hinting to what’s going to happen next?
This year could be special – there are so many possibilities and exciting moments in store! It’s looking like the 87th Masters event will be an especially gripping one.
