McIlroy and Lowry can paint Masters. masterpiece

Shane Lowry of Ireland and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland react on the No 9 green after McIIroy’s daughter made a putt during the Par 3 Contest prior to the start of the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Wednesday, April 09, 2025.

Andy Warhol was arguably the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century — perhaps even the most important of the entire century.

His story is the American Dream writ large — the kid from the underprivileged background in grimy Pittsburgh who worked against every disadvantage and was carried to very considerable success on the strength of his talent alone.

The romantics among us might believe that these things happen all the time but they simply don’t, not even in the weird and wonderful world of professional golf.

It would be untrue to suggest that Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry hail from deprived backgrounds but that they have emerged from working class roots on the basis of their talent alone is undeniable.

That they are two of the leading contenders for Masters glory this week is a triumph in itself.

Their emergence as global stars is one of the most remarkable Irish sporting success stories of any era no matter what might transpire in the golfing Garden of Eden they call Augusta National this week.

As Major champions, there is no physical reason why they can’t dare to dream this week and in a world peopled by so many grey, colourless and politically correct golfing lookalikes, there few in the press corp who would root against having to tell their stories on Sunday night.

McIlroy’s well-chronicled, 11-year walk in the Major wilderness, coupled with his heart-wrenching final round collapse in 2011 makes him the most compelling story in the game.

There is no denying he has form to contend, the stomach for battle but whether he can overcome the built up scar tissue of Masters and Majors past remains the big question mark, even with Dr Bob Rotella’s help.

“I feel like I'm better equipped than I ever have been to challenge this golf course,” McIlroy said this week. “I’ve made a real conscious effort this year to really be diligent with my course management and how I'm strategically trying to plot my way around the golf course.

“I’ve putted well this year, my around the green game has been really good. Every aspect of my game has been really, really solid. So I think putting all those things together this week, that's obviously the formula to get the job done.”

The elephant in the room is his quest to complete the career Grand Slam but he believes he’s developed techniques that will allow him to block out the noise, which is something he failed to do in the US Open at Pinehurst No 2 last June.

“I've always been good with distraction more than anything else,” McIlroy said. “Whether it be TV shows or books, and not watching TV, and literally just getting into my own little bubble of the world for the week, that’s the best way for me to to block out that noise and the narratives.”

Still, there’s no getting away from the narrative that he once again tees it up at Augusta National with the chance to become just the sixth man in history to complete the career Grand Slam — an achievement of Neil Armstrong proportions in terms of what it would mean, not just for Ireland, but for world sport.

“Only five other people have done it in golf,” he said. “I go back to when I was eight years old a— it’s on video somewhere — but someone says, Rory, what do you want to do when you're older if you're a golfer? And I said, I want to be the best player in the world, and I want to win all the majors.

“”I've done pretty much all those things apart from this one. So it's also just trying to, trying to fulfil that boyhood dream that I've always had, trying to make that eight or nine year old Rory proud of what he's been able to achieve and what he's been able to get out of the game of golf.”

Whatever about his recent near misses in the Majors, losing a four-shot lead in the final round in 2011 remains part of McIlroy’s Masters story.

Is there scar tissue there?

“Sometimes,” McIlroy told The Athletic this week when asked if those memories still creep in. “I think for me, with Augusta, especially what happened in 2011, it’s so far away. So many things have happened in my career and my life that I can sort of laugh about it now. But it’s still there.”

Visibly less hard on himself on the golf course, McIlroy has shown in recent months an ability to think more clearly when in trouble than in the past, accept his situation and resist the temptation to take a chance of compounding an error.

The punters and the talking heads would have us believe that if McIlroy can finish ahead of favourite Scottie Scheffler, he will win.

The Texan has not yet scaled the heady heights he reached in 2024 but he’s close and mentally, he appears to have a privileged mindset.

Collin Morikawa looks the man most likely to challenge the game’s top two on recent Masters form but Lowry knows that past performance does not guarantee future dividends.

Having recently turned 38, he knows he may not have many more chances to win the Masters and plans to pay attention to the small brushstrokes —solid course management, taking advantage of the par-fives and surviving the tough holes —in the hope he can resist the temptation to step back and see the full canvas and the historic implications of a first Irish win in the Masters.

“It’s obviously a very special week and a week that I want to play really well,” Lowry said. “But just because of what's gone on the last few weeks and or how I've played this year, doesn't give me a God given right to go play well.

“So I just need to get back to kind of my basics and just do my thing and give it my best shot.”

Just as Pádraig Harrington broke down so many barriers with his Open win in 2007, Lowry and McIlroy have a chance to make an even bigger mark on the game.

“It would mean everything, wouldn’t it,” Lowry said. “It would be great. It'd be great for the country, great for golf, and great for everyone.

‘Everyone in Ireland will be hopefully glued to the telly on Sunday evening and hopefully it will be me and him going at it down the stretch and one of us will get it done.”

More than 15 minutes of fame, it would mean golfing immortality.