Rory McIlroy has lived a few different lives already at the Masters as he seeks to capture golf’s ultimate lifetime achievement award. Through 13 holes on Thursday he looked very much like someone on a collision course with the career Grand Slam, a triumph worth waiting for at a track where he’s always snatched defeat from the jaws of potential victory. But he missed a golden opportunity to move to 5 under when his 8-foot birdie attempt wobbled just wide, setting up double-bogey calamities on No. 15 and 17. As sun set it appeared most of his hope and opportunity to finally break free of this now decade-long major spell was setting with it.
Golf Channel’s Live From the Masters came on the air with McIlroy’s furious reversion to the mean still fresh. Rich Lerner mentioned that he needed to scrap all his complimentary notes about the Northern Irishman’s game as a healthy red-number cushion had evaporated back to even. He, Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee, like the rest of the viewing audience, seemed a bit stunned at the roller-coaster ride and discussion turned to the idea that McIlroy had potentially ruined his chances before Justin Rose slept on a lead.
