Editor’s note: This story was originally published in April 2023.
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Rory McIlroy, slumped over his club and his head buried in his arm, looked close to tears.
The 21-year-old had just watched his ball sink into the waters of Rae’s Creek at Augusta National and, with it, his dream of winning the Masters, a dream that had seemed so tantalizingly close just hours before.
As a four-time major winner and one of the most decorated names in the history of the sport, few players would turn down the opportunity to swap places with McIlroy heading into Augusta this week.
However, on the afternoon of Sunday April 10, 2011, no golfer in the world would have wanted to be in the Northern Irishman’s place.
A fresh-faced, mop-headed McIlroy had landed in Georgia for the first major of the season with a reputation as the star of the next generation of stars.
An excellent 2010 marked his best season since turning professional three years earlier, highlighted by his first PGA Tour victory at the Quail Hollow Championship and a crucial contribution to Team Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph.
However, despite a pair of impressive top-three finishes at the Open and PGA Championship respectively, a disappointing failure at the Masters (his first in a major) served as an ominous omen.
McIlroy shot 74 and 77 to come within four shots of the cut line at seven over par, a performance that concerned him enough to take a brief sabbatical from competition.
But a year later, in 2011, all of the Masters’ lingering demons seemed to have been exorcised as McIlroy flew through the streets of Augusta.
Having opened with a bogey-free, seven-under-par 65 the first time he shot in the 60s at the Major, McIlroy moved ahead of Spanish first-round co-leader Alvaro Quirós with a 69 in the second round.
That sent him into the weekend with a two-shot lead over Australian Jason Day, with Tiger Woods one shot further back in pursuit of a 15th major after a second-round 66.
And yet the 21-year-old leader seemed perfectly comfortable with a target on his back. Even after a tentative start to the third round, McIlroy bounced back with three birdies on the final six holes to extend his lead to four shots heading into Sunday.
The young man left alone ahead of a chasing group made up of Day, Ángel Cabrera, KJ Choi and Charl Schwartzel. After 54 holes, McIlroy had shot only three bogeys.
“It’s a great position to be in… I finally feel comfortable on this golf course,” McIlroy told reporters.
“I’m not getting ahead of myself, I know the leads can diminish very quickly. I have to go out there, take nothing for granted and play as hard as I have the last three days. If I can do that, I hope things go my way.”
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow because four shots on this golf course is not much.”
The truth can hurt, and McIlroy was about to prove his assessment of Augusta true in the most egregious way imaginable.
His fourth bogey of the week came immediately. Having admitted to expecting some nerves on the first tee, McIlroy unleashed a powerful initial drive down the fairway, only to miss his putt from five feet.
Three consecutive pairs stabilized the boat, but Schwartzel had the wind in his favor. A spectacular start with birdie, par and eagle had led him to tie for the lead after his third hole.
A subsequent bogey by the South African slowed his attack, as McIlroy clung to a one-stroke lead around the turn of Schwartzel, Cabrera, Choi and a rampaging Woods, who fired five birdies and an eagle on the front nine to send Augusta into a frenzy.
Despite his dwindling lead and the raucous roar of Tiger-mania ahead, McIlroy had responded well to another bogey on the 5th hole, executing a brilliant 20-foot putt on the 7th to regain his lead.
The punch that followed marked the high point of McIlroy’s round, as a sliding start accelerated into a full-blown free fall on the par-four 10th hole.
His tee shot hit a tree, bounced and came to rest between the white cottages that separate the main course from the adjacent par-three course. It offered viewers a look at a part of Augusta rarely seen on the broadcast, followed by footage of McIlroy anxiously watching from behind a tree to follow his next shot.
Although his initial escape was successful, another collision with a tree and a double putt on the green saw a dazed McIlroy finally take triple bogey. Having led the field one hole and seven strokes earlier, he arrived at the 11th tee in seventh place.
By the time his tee box on the 13th hole fell into the creek, all thoughts of who might be the recipient of the green jacket had long since left the distraught young man. It took him seven putts to get around the previous two greens, when a bogey and a double bogey left him at five under par, the score he had maintained after just 11 holes of the tournament.
Fortunately, the last five holes passed without major incidents. A missed birdie putt from five feet on the final hole summed up McIlroy’s day, although he received a great reception as he left the green.
Just minutes earlier, the same crowd had erupted when Schwartzel made his fourth consecutive birdie to seal his first major title. After starting the day four shots behind McIlroy, the South African finished 10 shots ahead of him and two ahead of second-placed Australian duo Jason Day and Adam Scott.
McIlroy’s eight over 80 marked the highest score of the round. Having led the standings for most of the week, he finished tied for 15th.
Tears flowed during a phone call with his parents the next morning, but at his news conference, McIlroy was upbeat.
“I’m very disappointed right now and I’m sure I will be for the next few days, but I’ll get over it,” he said.
“I was leading this golf tournament with nine holes left and I just broke down… It’s a Sunday at a major, what you can do.
“This is my first experience at this, and hopefully the next time I’m in this position I can handle it a little better. Obviously I didn’t handle it particularly well today, but it was a character-building day… I’ll come out stronger.”
Once again, McIlroy would be right.
Just eight weeks later in June, McIlroy cruised to an eight-stroke victory at the US Open. Records fell in his wake at Congressional, when he shot a tournament-record 16-under 268 to become the youngest major winner since Tiger Woods in the 1997 Masters.
The historic victory began a golden era for McIlroy. After posting another eight-stroke victory at the PGA Championship in 2012, McIlroy became the third golfer since 1934 to win three majors by the age of 25 with a triumph at the 2014 Open Championship.
Before the year was out, he would add his fourth major title with another victory at the PGA Championship.
And a lot of it was due to that fateful afternoon in Augusta. in a interview With the BBC in 2015, McIlroy called it “the biggest day” of his career.
“If I hadn’t had all the meltdown, if I’d made a couple of bogeys down the stretch and lost by one, I wouldn’t have learned as much.
“Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to get back into a position like that when I was leading a Major and I was able to cross the line quite comfortably. It was a huge learning curve for me and I needed it, and fortunately I’ve been able to move on to bigger and better things.
“Looking back at what happened in 2011, it doesn’t seem so bad when you have four majors on the mantelpiece.”
McIlroy’s satisfaction came with a caveat: It would be “unthinkable” if he didn’t win the Masters in his career.
However, as he prepares for his 15th appearance at Augusta National this week, a green jacket remains an elusive piece missing from his wardrobe.
Despite seven top-10 finishes in his last 10 Masters starts, the trophy remains the only thing separating McIlroy from joining the ranks of golf’s immortals who have completed golf’s career grand slam of the four majors of the modern era: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
A second-place finish behind Scottie Scheffler last year marked McIlroy’s best finish at Augusta, but 2011 remains arguably the closest he’s come to victory. A slow start to 2022 meant McIlroy had started Sunday’s decisive round 10 shots behind the American, who headed out for his final hole with a five-stroke lead despite McIlroy’s brilliant finish of 64.
At 33 years old, time is still on his side. Although 2022 extended his major drought to eight years, it arguably featured his best golf since that golden 2014 season.
And as McIlroy knows better than most, things can change quickly at Augusta National.
