When Rory McIlroy makes the drive up Magnolia Lane ahead of this week’s Masters, he will do so for the ninth consecutive year knowing the coveted career Grand Slam is tantalisingly within reach.
From the moment he won the third of his four Majors – hoisting the Claret Jug after Open Championship triumph at Royal Liverpool in 2014 – the golfing public has been waiting for one of their favourite sons to slip on a Green Jacket and join the very greatest in the modern game.
Tiger, Jack, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen. The five men to have won all four Majors.
Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Phil Mickelson, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo are just some of the legends not to have completed the full set, but it has always felt like a matter of time before McIlroy takes that last step.
And yet, nine years on, we’re still waiting.
Of course, it could all been so different, had things gone the way they were supposed to on Sunday, April 10, 2011, when a fresh-faced 21-year-old from Co Down stepped onto the first tee at Augusta National with the tournament at his mercy.
Having led the field – and the feared Augusta course – a merry dance for the first three days, the youngster held a four-shot advantage heading out on the final day, and despite a nervy front nine, was still a shot to the good at the turn. And then it all unravelled in rapid and spectacular fashion.
A pulled drive on the 10th crashed into a tree and ricocheted into a previously unseen area between two cabins. By the time McIlroy and caddie JP Fitzgerald plotted their way to the hole, a triple-bogey seven had been run up, and hopes were fading fast.
A four-putt double-bogey on ‘Golden Bell’, the treacherous par three 12th, followed and when another drive was pulled into the creek at the 13th, the race was run and one of the iconic images of Masters history – McIlroy slumped over his bag in utter despair and disbelief – was captured.
Charl Schwartzel ran out the winner that afternoon, while a frazzled McIlroy was left to ponder on what might have been.
“This was my first experience of it,” he said afterwards.
“Hopefully, next time I’m in this position, I’ll be able to handle it a little better.”
The next time came sooner than many thought, as Rory regrouped and just two months later was walking away with his first Major title, destroying the competition to claim the US Open at Congressional in Washington DC.
However, 12 years on, he has never really had as good a chance to end his quest for the Green Jacket, one that actually started two years before those dramatic scenes of 2011.
McIlroy posted a fine debut in 2009, finishing in a share of 20th as Angel Cabrera – his final day playing partner in 2011 – claimed victory.
His second visit in 2010 ended in a missed cut, while after the agony of 2011, it was perhaps unsurprising some scar tissue remained.
Tied for third at halfway a year later, the wheels came off again over the weekend, while in 2013 a third round 79 was his undoing en route to a share of 25th place.
After 36 holes in 2014, McIlroy must have been starting to wonder if Augusta had taken a dislike to him.
The last man into the weekend’s play, McIlroy was partnered by amateur and scorer Jeff Knox, and whatever local knowledge was imparted seemed to hit home.
The Holywood man flew through the field over a difficult weekend, finishing eighth as Bubba Watson took his second Masters crown.
That upturn in fortunes prompted a run of four successive “back-door top-10s”, as the man himself described them, before the next big opportunity came around in 2018.
Seven years on from his last real chance, McIlroy once more found himself in Sunday’s final pairing, this time alongside Ryder Cup adversary Patrick Reed.
And this time – unlike 2011 – he was the hunter rather than the prey, starting three shots back with only one man in his sights.
Once more, however, his game wasn’t quite there when it mattered, a closing 74 leaving him in a share of fifth and watching on as Reed tried the Green Jacket on for size.
“I can’t let this derail me or get me down,” said a phlegmatic McIlroy afterwards.
“I know it’s hard to take any positives from this right now, but at least I put myself in position. I’ve been in two final groups here in the last seven years. I play this course well, just not well enough yet. I’ll sit down over the next few days and look at what I could have done better.”
Better failed to materialise over the next three years, although there was another fifth-placed finish in the unique 2020 Masters, played in November because of the Covid-19 pandemic and won by Dustin Johnson.
The 2022 renewal was much more like it, and the manner in which it finished will surely give the world number two more belief than ever that the Holy Grail will eventually be captured.
Having hovered around the fringes of the top-10 for the first three days, McIlroy went out on Sunday 10 shots off the pace set by Scottie Scheffler, his Masters hopes dangling by the thinnest of threads.
Perhaps freed up by the knowledge that only birdies would do, he freewheeled to a flawless eight-under round of 64.
When a miraculous bunker shot on the 72nd hole found the bottom of the cup, for a fleeting moment he let himself dream, a celebration of wildly flailing arms followed by a telling post-round remark, McIlroy saying “that’s the happiest I’ve ever been on the golf course”.
Ultimately it was only enough for second as Scheffler closed the deal, but there was plenty to take away for the future.
“I’ve always known that I can do it. I’ve played well enough around Augusta, maybe just haven’t strung four rounds together like this. But I’ve always known I have the game to win.”
And after a highly-impressive run to the semi-finals of the Dell Techologies World Match Play in his most recent event after changes to his driver and putter, hopes are higher than ever that the Masters itch can finally be scratched.
“I think my game is in really good shape so just keep it ticking over, work on the shots I need for Augusta and away we go,” he said after that run in Austin.
With the experience of 14 previous visits banked, form returning at just the right time, and stories of taking Augusta to its knees on a recent scouting trip, this just could be the year McIlroy drives back down Magnolia Lane with the Grand Slam complete and a Green Jacket resting on his shoulders.
