– The joke was confirmed: Rory McIlroy, winner of the ninetieth edition of the Masters, finished the tournament bottom of the fairways-hit statistic (31/56). Of the 54 players who made the cut only Marco Penge hit fewer fairways (30/56), but of course, while the Englishman finished 49th at +6, the Northern Irishman completed the 72 holes 18 strokes better and strung together his second green jacket…
– It must be said that the winner of the Masters has not always been one of the best in this department. The Augusta National, in that sense, is a more forgiving course than some you find in the majors. But that is one thing, and quite another to win two Masters in a row while being on both occasions among the three worst in this statistic.
– There are ways and ways of missing fairways on this course and Rory has chosen his. It was said this week: hit it very hard off the tee and accept what comes, knowing that often, in the worst case, at least you will be closer to the green. Then, of course, you have to prepare the second and third parts of the plan…
– The second is to work shrewdly and persistently on all those tricky situations you can get into when you miss the fairway. That is why Rory went out to play the Augusta National in the weeks prior intent on getting the best possible result with just one ball. Thus, the man from Holywood has by no means been the one who has hit the most greens in regulation in 2025 or 2026, but in this respect he has shown much better form (he was 16th in GIR in 2025 and 22nd in 2026).
– And the third part of the plan, probably the most important, is to practise recoveries to near obsession in every nook and cranny of each of the 18 holes of the Georgian titan. Then, of course, everyone has their own hands and not all are equally steady and delicate… Rory‘s are, and moreover he works them tirelessly.
– At the end of 2024, during the preseason ahead of 2025, Rory set some priorities in his work schedule and did so guided by the great reference of the moment, Scottie Scheffler, who had come off winning loads of tournaments that year, Olympic gold included. Rory asked himself, honestly and even humbly: which areas do I need to improve, taking as reference the guy (Scottie) who is running away with things from all of us? And, with the numbers in his hands and the experience in his head he concluded there were two fundamental points. One was course strategy. The other was the short game. The Scheffler whirlwind made Rory re-learn in some way the decisive weight of the short game. Thanks to that wise reset, among other things, we are today where we are, with the Grand Slam Career in Rory‘s pocket and two green jackets in the wardrobe.
– Scottie Scheffler‘s Masters is impossible to get a handle on for analysis, but whatever the case it mainly tells us about the immeasurable greatness of this player, capable of fighting for victory in extremis without his best version. It was only on Saturday that he reminded us of the unstoppable World No. 1 he is, because even on Sunday, despite that notable 68, bogey-free, you did not have the clear feeling of being faced with the Texan’s best version, far from it. He was clear yesterday, summing up his week: on Friday morning he had a very playable course ahead, a course where lots of birdies were being made, and he simply could not do it. That was his analysis. The question is, beyond luck and the fact that things do not always go the way you want, why couldn’t Scottie do it. He did not look comfortable, surely pressured by those urgencies that have surfaced more than once this year after he won the American Express on his first outing. Not even Scheffler can or should chalk up a birdie on the card before making it…
– The next stop in major key, in barely a month, will be the PGA Championship, played at the Aronimink Golf Club, located in Newton Square, a suburb of Philadelphia. There will be time to mull over the event and tell a thousand stories, but here is a juicy and pertinent preview…
– On this beautiful, classic layout of Aronimink (it opened in 1928) only one major has been played, the 1962 PGA won by Gary Player, but in recent years it also hosted two PGA Tour events. One was the AT&T National in July 2010; the other the 2018 BMW Championship, which at the time was the third FedEx Cup playoff. Well, the first was won by Justin Rose and the second by Keegan Bradley, after beating in a playoff… Justin Rose. Will we have the veteran Englishman at the top again?
– One last spicy touch: in that 2018 BMW Rory McIlroy went out on Sunday to play in the feature group alongside Rose and Schauffele (they teed off three at a time), one shot off the leader, Rose. The Northern Irishman finished fifth, two shots off the playoff that the Englishman and Bradley played, after putting for birdie on all 18 greens (on two occasions from the fringe) and thirteen times from less than six metres… Rory, that day, played better than anyone from tee to green and should have won, but he only holed two birdie putts: one from barely an inch and another from a metre. Will this fellow be able to pull off a double, Masters and PGA, that would somehow put him on the path to the impossible Grand Slam? Well, there will be time to tell the milkmaid’s tale. And besides, in a month, in Philadelphia, we’ll have a certain Scheffler thirsty for blood and glory. Between the two of them, Rory and Scottie, in case anyone had not yet noticed, they have won four of the last five majors.
