'Don’t choke, don’t choke, and don’t choke man I knew I was going to choke'. The immortal line of Otis from the Simpson as he leaves Homer a 7/10 spit. You know that Rory Mcllroy must have been repeating something very similar to himself as he struggled round the first 9 on his final round at Augusta on Sunday. Sadly it wasn’t to be enough, Rory was still the outright leader as he was teeing off at the 10th but if his head wasn’t already gone after his patchy start, it was once he recorded a triple bogey on the same hole.
It appears that leading the Masters going into the last day was just a step too far for this talented youngest. Bogeying the first had set the standard and he struggled from then on in. No amount of self motivation was going to turn his day round. In his heart I think deep down he must have know it wasn’t going to be his day. But in a morbid sense, it really was gripping viewing. You were desperate for him to recover but knew he wouldn’t, it was car crash TV at it’s most compelling. What made it so difficult was it was real life, unscripted horror, you simply had to watch just to see how it unfolded.
It’s funny how the Physique works, if he’d been trailing the lead by 3 teeing off at the eleventh after just recording a birdie he would fancy he’s chances but the reality was he’s card had taken a 7 shot swing in the wrong direction and he didn’t want to be there. As for Charles Schwartzel it was a complete reversal of fortune, chipping in at the first and eagling the par 4 third. He could be forgiven for thinking this might be my day, and so it proved as he finished on -14 adding the green jacket to his wardrobe.
As for Mcllroy, comparisons were made to Greg Norman's collapse in 96. Norman didn’t win any further majors after this though is only two victories came outside the US at The Open. The sympathetic pundits all proclaiming that his post round interview showed he was mature beyond his years and gracious in defeat but this was hardly consolation. 'He’ll learn from this, it’ll make him a better player' they'll say. I hope for Rory’s sake it does. But I can’t see how losing a 4 shot lead on the final day of a major is a good learning curve. Thankfully Rory has time on his side and I’m sure in time he’ll draw positives from this experience. But I’m sure he would have preferred to have drawn from this experience knowing that’s when he won his first major. Having led at The Open last year and although he was unfortunate with the weather conditions he posted a similar disastrous (but this time) second round score.
The longer you keep knocking on the door but failing to win the bigger that monkey on your back becomes. Just ask Rory's Twitter bubby Andy Murray. Unfortunately For Rory for the next few weeks if not months Ray Charles isn’t the only one with Georgia on his mind.
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