Rory shines while Tiger struggles
AUGUSTA, Ga. – The noise from the 17th green was exactly what Tiger Woods feared, this kid out of Northern Ireland had drained another birdie – from 33 feet this time.
Rory McIlroy was 12-under par and making a mockery out of anyone who thought he, at 21 years old, would wilt amidst the humidity and pressure of the Masters.
Tiger hadn’t done a darn thing to push McIlroy, of course. He hadn’t made the run at the kid he anticipated. He hadn’t caused his own big gallery to send up cheers that said he was coming now, the kind that might rattle a comfort zone
Instead, Tiger Woods had just trudged around Augusta and missed putts and blew chances and got so frazzled that at one point he called himself “Woodrow” and another he laughed out loud at his own misfortune.
Now Tiger was standing in the middle of the 18th fairway, knowing that at that very moment the future of golf was celebrating behind him.
Once the Rory roar died down, Tiger stepped up to his ball, swung too hard and sent his approach long. It landed behind the green, dooming him to a bogey that would leave him at two-over on the day, 5-under for the tournament and in need of a miracle to win.
This was the moment Tiger was all but done and he knew it. This was, perhaps, the moment a new generation of golf was officially swept in. It was moving day and Woods moved back, making himself an afterthought going into Sunday at the Masters.
Rory McIlroy is going to win a lot of major championships and a lot of Masters, perhaps his first on Sunday, when he’d be the same age as Tiger when he first shocked the world. And there on that 18th fairway, watching his shot go awry, Tiger Woods had to know there isn’t a whole lot he can do about that anymore.
Woods tossed his club in disgust, sunk his head and put his hands on his hips. After a few seconds of disbelief he began trudging toward his ball.
He’d marched up that 18th hill so many times in triumph, so many coronation walks. This was the opposite; this was the picture of defeat; Tiger mumbling to himself in a sweat-stained shirt. The gallery eventually cheered, but more out of remembrance than performance. Tiger could barely look up and muster a tip of his cap.
Can you still win he was asked later.
“Absolutely,” he said.
It sounded more reflexive than reality. Tiger started the day just three strokes behind McIlroy and proceeded to back up. McIlroy didn’t just extend his lead on the field (four strokes) while chewing up 18 holes of opportunity; he left Tiger seven behind.
“Patience and patience,” McIlroy said.
“I just made nothing,” Woods said.
Woods blew putt after putt on Saturday. Blew the kind of putts he used to make in his sleep. Eight feet. Six feet. He looked like a guy feeling the pressure – of time, of an unflappable opponent, of a slump that’s derailed his career.
“It was a very frustrating round,” he said.
Meanwhile, McIlroy was the picture of cool. He’s young but exudes an otherworldly confidence. He’s here essentially alone. His parents remained at home. He told his coach to stay away – “there’s no point, you can’t (put in) anymore work here.” He hangs out in a rented house with a bunch of his buddies; they pass the time throwing a football around.
“(We’re) trying not to break any lamps,” he said.
In an era of the coddled athlete, the stage parent and the overbearing management team; McIlroy looks and acts like a kid who doesn’t know he’s 18 holes from history. He has just three bogeys in three days here. He just shrugs at the supposed pressure.
“I'll sleep all right,” he said. “I probably won't get to bed until later on. There's a big rugby match on (Sunday). Ulster, my team, (is) playing Northampton. So I'll have to get up at about ten to watch that.”
McIlroy is big on saying he doesn’t care about any other golfer in the field, that he can only control his game and that he’s confident he can defeat anyone in the world. That said, yes, he too was surprised Woods couldn’t muster even a challenge. Woods had played so well on Friday. And who hadn't seen him bulldoze his way to the top on so many Saturdays in the past?
"You would expect him to come out and play well," McIlroy said.
After his round, Woods, frustrated and furious, went immediately to the practice green. His putter had killed him all day and now he was determined to get to work. McIlroy was drawing cheers over on the 18th green and Woods set up about seven feet from a cup and started putting. He made three consecutive. Then nine. Then 15. Then he missed and made 13 more in a row.
Sweat was pouring off his face, dripping down on the ball as he stood in position. He kept talking to himself – “follow thru, thru, thru.” As he set up more difficult putts, he began missing more regularly. He kept shaking his head. It was painful to watch.
The hour was getting late now; the shadows growing long, Tiger’s patience growing short. He was once that 21-year-old kid tearing through the Masters, the one with the perfect game and the limitless future. Now he was the 35-year-old that hadn’t won in a year and a half and couldn’t consistently drain a 10-footer that broke left.
“Follow thru, thru, thru,” he said again, making the motion with his left hand.
Just then McIlroy climbed into a golf cart and, riding shot gun, headed to the media center. To get there he came curving around the practice green.
The new generation was headed to an adoring press conference. The old generation was sweating and swearing and trying to recapture some lost magic.
The golf cart whizzed right by that practice green and Rory McIlroy never even noticed Tiger Woods was there.
