It is the marketing campaign even Augusta National could not buy. If the return of Tiger Woods had apparently cranked pre-Masters anticipation to a fevered extent, Rory McIlroy’s scintillating victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational added another strand to a major quite rightly now billed as the most eagerly awaited in years.
Woods’s ability to compete once more should now be a given. That McIlroy could do likewise was taken for granted but the Northern Irishman, who had slipped outside the top 10 in the world, has every right to cherish a first tournament success since September 2016. Injury, which had a serious impact on McIlroy’s ability to practise during the following year, was a mitigating factor but external doubts still lingered. McIlroy has always revelled in quashing such sentiment.
His triumph on Sunday has a wider, tantalising context; McIlroy at the Masters will attempt to complete a full house of major championships while now back in the best of fettle. He rightly cited a “huge” pre-Augusta confidence boost as delivered with the 64 to achieve success at Bay Hill.
McIlroy left central Florida $1.6m richer but with an unquantifiable shot in the arm before the Masters, the pursuit of which remains his holy grail.
“I’ve always believed in myself and I know that me being 100% healthy is good enough to not just win on the PGA Tour but win a lot,” McIlroy said. “I guess that’s what kept me going. I wanted to get back to 100% fitness, which I have, and that allows me to practise as much as I want, go about my business, do everything that I need to do to feel 100% prepared to play golf tournaments.
“So I never lost belief. I know that I’ve got a gift for this game and I know that if I put the time in I can make a lot of it. I guess that’s what’s kept me going.”
Still, it would be only natural if McIlroy displayed elements of envy as Justin Thomas won a series of PGA Tour events, Woods announced himself as a force once more and Phil Mickelson – at 47 – took delivery of a World Golf Championship. At times, McIlroy took on the bizarre status of golf’s forgotten man.
“Most of these guys are my friends, so I’m happy for them,” he insisted. “JT’s been on a tear the last 18 months. Phil, it was great for him to get the win in Mexico. Tiger coming back? I’m happy to answer those questions. I just hope they get some questions about me now.”
Justin Rose has already sampled the same. The Englishman, who partnered McIlroy on Sunday, conceded he had never seen his Ryder Cup team-mate putt with such distinction. “He always makes it look so easy when he is playing well,” Rose said.
McIlroy feared he had become “bogged down with technical or mechanical putting thoughts”, with tips from the eight-times PGA Tour winner Brad Faxon credited with a fresher mindset.
“If I hit a good putt, great,” McIlroy said. “If it goes in, wonderful. If it doesn’t, I’ve done all that I can do. It’s a philosophical change, a psychological change in how I approached putting this week. That was the real difference.
“I’m trying to get back to feeling how I did as a kid, where your instinct takes over. The last time I had freedom like this was probably 2014.” Four years ago, McIlroy won two majors.
McIlroy, Thomas, Woods and Mickelson are all rightly part of pre‑Masters chatter. Three of the four – Woods is not eligible – will feature at the WGC Match Play in Austin this week. Woods will instead head to Augusta for detailed inspection of a venue at which he has not competed since 2015. Rose will skip the Match Play, with his pre-Masters routine to include the Houston Open – as is normal – from next Thursday.
Rose’s outstanding recent Masters record, including a play-off defeat to Sergio García a year ago, marks him out as a live contender once more. His third place at the Arnold Palmer would only endorse confidence in the former US Open champion. “The game is in a nice spot,” Rose said. “The margins are really small out here and I feel like I’m really, really close.”
McIlroy has gone one step further. The Masters, which rarely arrives quietly, has been afforded marquee status.
