Augusta, Ga. — Rory McIlroy Can’t help but look at the leaderboard.
Watch him bounding down the fairway to the green in whatever tournament he’s competing in and you’ll see him ogling them at any chance he gets. The five-time major winner always wants to know where he stands.
At Augusta National, where analog is king, big white boards deliver suspense with their own pace, and on Friday, what slowly unfolded over those name and number plates was a clear story.
A year after defeating the ghosts of the Masters past in painful fashion, McIlroy is in the driver’s seat as he seeks a second green jacket and the first back-to-back winner at Augusta since Tiger Woods in 2001.
Whether it was the renewed sense of purpose, the sudden freedom or simply that he was, once again, playing some of the best golf he has ever called his profession, McIlroy shot a 65 on Friday and had a six-shot gap between him and the rest of the field. In 90 editions of the Masters, no one has held such a lead after two rounds.
“I always think this golf course can give you a run if you let it,” McIlroy said. “I always had the ability to go on these runs, but I think it was getting to the point where I was allowing myself to play the way I knew I could. So it was getting ahead of myself. It was staying aggressive.”
It’s not that McIlroy was flying under the radar this week, but it’s more that there was so much focus on recounting last year’s epic – several TV features, YouTube videos and a documentary – that his play this week was viewed as secondary. Just not by him. As he said Friday, he has prepared for this Masters as much as he has for any other Masters, taking day trips from Florida to play the course and arriving here as early as ever this week.
“I’ve been on this golf course for the last three weeks,” he said. “It’s a combination of practicing and chipping and putting around the greens, and then just playing a ball and scoring and ending up in weird places where you’d probably never find yourself and just trying to figure it out. I think spending so much time here has been a big part of it.”
With his round Friday, McIlroy has shifted the conversation firmly to the present and brought history with him. Yet sitting behind him, some of the best players in the world are ready to try to chase him down, even if he’s trying not to think about them.
When McIlroy was asked about scaring the rest of the field, he said, “I don’t want to do that.” “Honestly, I don’t care… Golf is the most wonderful sport because it’s you and your golf ball and the golf course and that’s it. You shouldn’t be influenced by anyone else.”
Those trailing include a player who broke bread with him at the Masters Champions Dinner on Tuesday night and a player with whom he has battled in the past in Patrick Reed. The former LIV player, along with Sam Burns, are six behind McIlroy. Like McIlroy, Reed is also looking for his second win here. But while McIlroy can still reach back and touch the emotions that overwhelmed him on the 18th green last year, the memories of Reed’s victory are not as fresh.
“Since 2018, I’ve always wanted to wear it a second time,” Reed said of the green jacket. “I like the position I put myself in.”
The rest of the top 10 includes three players in the top 10 of the World Golf Ranking, five major winners and plenty of familiar faces. Justin Rose will once again be looking for his second major win of the weekend knowing the blueprint needed to win. He came back last year and almost stole it from McIlroy in the playoffs. Can he even do a double take?
“Obviously I want to win this tournament. I don’t really need to try harder,” Rose, at 5 under, said Friday. “Tying harder isn’t going to help me. So maybe that’s the dance I’m doing with myself. I know there’s intrinsic motivation. It’s all about execution.”
With two eagles on Friday, Tommy Fleetwood made his charge on the leaderboard and sits seven back. Despite the round of 68, Fleetwood’s analysis of the weekend after seeing McIlroy on top was simple and accurate.
“It depends on what happens,” Fleetwood said.
What McIlroy’s roller-coaster final round last year showed was twofold: No lead was big enough for him or anyone else to feel comfortable with at Augusta, yet no one had more pressure and expectations on him than that afternoon.
It is now gone, if not completely gone. McIlroy, as he eloquently explained Thursday, can bookend any round here with a stroll to the Champions Locker Room, where he can don a green jacket and Coke Zero for the rest of the day. It’s a comfort he’s still getting used to, but also a dose of perspective that he clearly isn’t letting get in the way of his hunger to add to his major total.
“My mentality over the years hasn’t been ‘keep swinging.’ It’s directed at, temporary,” McIlroy said. “I think the experience I’ve gained over the last few years and obviously what happened last year has made it a little easier to keep swinging out there.”
That’s why McIlroy’s advice heading into the weekend is simple: Like last year, this quest isn’t about anyone else but his own battle with the golf course and what’s between his ears. However, unlike last year, his mind is in a much better place now.
“I think for me the next two days are just about really focusing on myself,” McIlroy said. “It’s hard to avoid those big leaderboards, but I know I’ve got an edge. So I don’t have to keep checking it all the time.”
By the time McIlroy walked up the hill leading to the 18th green Friday, the patrons present, who had watched the numbers go up next to his name on the leaderboard, let him hear their applause.
“He’s killing All Perfect shot,” said one patron.
The volume increased with every step McIlroy took. He raised his putter into the air and then, a few minutes later, used it for his ninth birdie of the day, his sixth in the last seven holes. Before leaving the round behind, he took one last look at the most famous leaderboard on the field.
That told McIlroy everything he needed to know: He’s got 36 more holes to add to his lore.
