McIlroy ready to joins the immortals
Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland speaks to members of the media during a practice round prior to the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Tuesday, April 07, 2026.
Forty years after Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters, the golfing world still yearns to tune in as the players hit Amen Corner on Sunday and get confirmation that all is right with the world.
It's the last refuge of the sporting romantic; the place where more often than not, the best of the best wins in swashbuckling fashion to sweep off with the grand prize.
Like Jack Nicholson's OCD character, Melvin Udall, tells his love interest, Helen Hunt, in As Good As It Gets, Augusta makes you want to be a better man.
It presents such an idyllic canvas that even the writers want to be like Jim Murray, the great LA Times columnist, for just one day and paint a masterpiece in words.
When Nicklaus won at 46 in '86, Murray wrote: "He is not going gently into that good night. He is going to eagle it."
Many had that feeling last year when Rory McIlroy, 14 years after imploding on the back nine, completed the final leg of the career Grand Slam with a performance that Ben Crenshaw described at Tuesday night's Masters Club Dinner as a "toboggan ride."
Rory is not Scottie Scheffler, but he elicits the same feelings golf lovers had for Seve, or music lovers for Mozart.
As Murray said of those who rooted for the Golden Bear, "You always want Jack Nicklaus to win golf tournaments. The way you always want Ruth to get homers, Rose to get hits, Dempsey to get knockouts, Koufax strikeouts and Mays fly balls at the fence."
As the 90th Masters hoves into view, the question is: Can McIlroy become just the fourth man after Jack, Tiger and Faldo to go back-to-back?
It's one of many questions looming over the top contenders for the title as they prepare to tackle a course that's going to ask questions about your ability to handle wind, firm and fast greens and hit iron shots of such precision that the slightest error will generate only pain.
Is McIlroy fit after his back problems and hungry to win again after finally achieving his childhood dream?
The answer is yes, and yes again, as he said on Tuesday.
He knows the Masters offers him the best chance to add to his Major record.
"I know that I'm going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks that the champions get here," he said.
"It doesn't make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but yeah, just more relaxed about it all."
What makes McIlroy more dangerous this year is that he's found a formula that works at Augusta and knows when to be aggressive and when to be patient.
"I think panic is the wrong word, but I didn't overreact on Thursday when I made those two double bogeys," he said of his opening 72 last year when he double bogeyed two of his last four holes.
"I didn't overreact when I was only 1-under through nine on Friday. I think not overreacting and not pressing too hard, I stayed patient or as patient as I could be, and I feel like that patience was rewarded."
For all the talk about this being the most open Masters in years, given Scottie Scheffler's recent fall off in form and the arrival of his family's second child, Remy, Augusta National rewards its favourite sons like no other venue.
"The bottom line is, the guy still making cuts, he's still finishing between 10th and 25th, and it's another tick in the right box for me as how great this player is lining up to be in the history of golf," Paul McGinley said of the Texan, who is going for his third Masters win in his last five years.
Is he playing as well as he was in 2022 or 2024? The answer is no, but Scheffler wasn't prepared to go there.
"Game feels like it's in a good spot," he said. "I got some rest the last few weeks at home. So I feel rested and ready to go this week."
The bookies have made McIlroy the third favourite and that looks about right.
Scheffler is the bookie's choice ahead of Jon Rahm, who appears to be back to his best and itching to prove he's still a Major contender, even though he's challenged little since moving to LIV Golf.
He won a wet and cold Masters that was a battle of attrition in 2023, but sees familiar signs in his game.
"If I had to say what was really good in 2023, that is probably getting towards that level again is, hopefully, my iron game," he said.
McIlroy left Bryson DeChambeau in his exhaust fumes last year, but the Mad Scientist is back for more and confident that at 32, he's at the peak of his powers.
Like McIlroy, he's also learnt what works at Augusta, where a player's patience can be tested to such an extent that they are often tempted to push in all their chips and bet on a bad hand.
"More patience, like not as aggressive all the time," he said. "Knowing where to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive. Those are the things. Making better decisions, having a caddie that reins me in sometimes: Bryson, you don't need to do that. There's no need."
Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Players Championship winner Cameron Young and Tommy Fleetwood sit just behind the big four when it comes to form.
Young and Fitzpatrick, in particular, showed at TPC Sawgrass that few players are playing better.
Fitzpatrick, a former US Open and US amateur champion, has made the cut every year for 10 straight years after missing the cut on his amateur debut in 2014.
But given the fine weather forecast and the premium that will be placed on great iron play and silky short game skills, Patrick Reed lurks ominously down the betting stakes.
Tom McKibbin makes his debut, realising that he wants to come back forever, while Shane Lowry, now 39, may see this as one of his last opportunities to make his mark at Augusta.
He was chastened by his failure to get over the line in the Dubai Invitational and the Cognizant Classic, but clearly has the accuracy, the laser-like iron play, and the short-game imagination that few in this field can match.
If Lowry can put himself in position with 27 holes to go, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he can find himself at Amen Corner on Sunday with a chance to answer the stark questions that Augusta poses before bestowing golfing immortality on the chosen one.
