By Lenox Rawlings
Winston-Salem Journal
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters was Rory McIlroy’s to lose, and he lost it.
He lost it in ways that Greg Norman couldn’t imagine. Or Bill Murray, for that matter, on the back nine at Augusta National Sunday afternoon.
“I’m very disappointed,” McIlroy said behind the 18th green, his sparkling eyes still dry and a glimmer of his 21-year-old grin still intact. “You know, I was leading this golf tournament with nine holes to go, and I just unraveled.”
He unraveled in places contenders never visit, knocking his tee shot on No. 10 off a tree and into a hacker’s black hole between two white cabins. He three-putted the 11th green. He four-putted the 12th green. He hooked his tee shot on No. 13 halfway to Atlanta.
McIlroy shot 80 on a day when the second-worst score was 78, blowing his four-stroke lead and then some. The score reminded dinosaurs of Jack Burke’s eight-stroke comeback in 1956, when leader (and amateur) Ken Venturi shot 80.
Nobody took more putts than McIlroy (35) in the final round, and nobody slipped farther down the ladder, from first with a limo to a tie for 15th with four fellows who never had a whiff.
Charl Schwartzel of South Africa birdied the last four holes, something no winner had ever done, and soared out of the birdie-binging horde with a 6-under-par 66. He beat McIlroy by 14 strokes, reminiscent of Nick Faldo’s six-stroke comeback over the self-vaporizing Norman in 1996, when Faldo shot 67 to Norman’s waterlogged 78.
McIlroy made the turn in 37, just ahead of Schwartzel, Angel Cabrera, K.J. Choi and stampeding Tiger Woods.
“I hit a bad tee shot on 10 and then never, never really recovered,” McIlroy said. “You know, it’s going to be hard to take for a few days, but I’ll get over it. I’m fine. … I knew it was going to be tough for me out there, and it was.”
The pivotal drive on the par-4 10th struck the tree, and the ricochet landed near the Butler Cabin, used for TV interviews and the studio version of the green jacket ceremony.
“I felt comfortable on that tee shot all week, and for some reason, I just started it a little left of where I wanted to and hit that tree,” he said, a wry smile preceding his self-deprecating chuckle. “I don’t think anyone’s been over there in those cabins before.”
He punched out of the residential neighborhood but still needed a 250-yard missile to reach the green. McIlroy pulled the shot left and then hit a tree trying to escape the next prison yard. The slapstick added up to triple bogey.
“The seven on 10 just sort of derailed me a little bit, and it was hard to get back,” McIlroy said. The bogey on 11 and double bogey on 12 sealed his deal, and the devilish hook off the 13th tee shut the last door.
“I’d sort of realized that unless I birdied my way in, I realized I didn’t have a chance,” McIlroy said. “I was trying my hardest … but once I hit that tee shot left on 13, I realized that was it.”
Adam Scott, who tied for second, predicted that McIlroy will recover.
“I think when his emotions settle down, he can take a lot of positives about how far he got in this event,” Scott said. “Not that he needs to prove that to himself, because he’s finished third in the last two majors before this. He’s a hell of a player, and he just needs to let it get out of his system and reset everything and get on with it. He’s as good as it gets for a 21-year-old.”
McIlroy was as bad as any golfer gets on the last nine of a major, but he reacted like a veteran. “I’ll come out stronger for it,” McIlroy said.
He came out in one piece, his humor intact, which is even par for fresh beginnings.