McIlroy is looking good – but that may not be enough

I still don’t think Rory McIlroy will win the 2025 Masters Tournament. 

 McIlroy is coming off a pair of victories over the past few weeks. It’s the first time he’s won twice in this country before the Masters. There are a lot of smart people saying he’s at the top of his game. That is true. They also say things are trending in the right direction for him to finally replace that monkey on his back with a green jacket. That’s where we disagree. 

Let’s review, shall we. McIlroy needs to win the Masters to become the sixth player in professional men’s golf to claim the career grand slam. Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus, and Woods all achieved the feat - Nicklaus and Woods more than once. It’s rarified golf air.  

It’s my belief that this accomplishment is taking up so much space in McIlroy’s head, understandably, that he is unable to get out of his own way. Let me say this - it’s no easy feat. It was also more than 20 years ago when Woods got it done - long before the days of social media, intense scrutiny, constant questions, the non-stop badgering.  

Here’s what I’ve believed for the past five or six years. The only way McIlroy is going to get this done is to somehow come in under the radar, when little is expected of him. That is not now. He’s coming in having just won his second Players Championship. Everything is expected from him now. 

Even if he could somehow tamp down the Amen Corner demons in his head, there’s the matter of his ability to play the course. He has always struggled on the greens at big moments. Take last summer at Pinehurst, for example. He wrestled a little of that away with some putts at crucial times last weekend, but in majors, it still remains to be seen. Then there’s the rest of his game. Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee said to me on my golf show that the course doesn’t fit his game. Most of the lies at Augusta National call for a fader of the golf ball, which is not McIlroy’s strong suit. He would have to find a way to get extremely comfortable playing that shot, in pressure situations and often, over the four days. 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t want to see McIlroy win here. I absolutely do. It would be historic for the game and I’m all for being around when history is made. It would be a glorious reception if McIlroy were able to make the walk up the 18^th fairway, tournament in hand. But I’m not counting on it - not yet anyway. Still, that tournament has a way of making magical moments happen and I’m anxious to see what it has up its green jacket sleeve this year.