AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was all going so well for Rory McIlroy during his first round of the 2025 Masters—until it wasn’t.
Two double bogeys three holes (Nos. 15 and 17) apart tumbled him down the leaderboard into territory that, if recent history is to be believed, has effectively ended his chances of winning a green jacket. He finished with an even-par 72, but that left him seven shots off the pace in a tie for 27th
It’s easy to be Captain Hindsight on these things. Nitpick some details about what McIlroy could’ve done better over a shot that I could never hit even in my wildest dreams. That said, let’s retrospectively nitpick some details about what Rory could’ve done better over his crucial chip shot on the 15th hole, which found the water and started his downward slide.
The low route mistake
McIlroy came into this hole four under, and three off Rose’s lead. His approach into the par 5 finished long of the green. With the green sloping steeply from back-to-front, McIlroy opted to go the lower route. You can tell by looking at his clubface here: It’s not very open, and almost completely square.
Halfway back the clubface is still fairly hooded.
And there’s not much release of the clubface on the way through.
Low-spinners are usually a kind of safe, go-to shot that pros love to reach for. But here, it was probably the wrong shot to hit.
The pin on 15 was tucked on the edge of a five- to six-percent slope, and the greens have been aggressively firming up for the past three days.
“I can’t believe how much these greens have firmed up, even since yesterday,” Denny McCarthy said after his round.
McIlroy landed his ball on the flattest portion of the green, but with the green as speedy and as sloped as this, it’s borderline impossible to hit a low shot with enough spin to get your ball to grab in time. If you go low here, you probably have to bump it into the upslope short of the green to take some speed off it. The other option would be to go ultra-high, like you see a young Phil Mickelson do here.
Not easy shots to hit, and again, easy in hindsight. But either of those options in these conditions would’ve probably stayed dry. Rory went with something in between, and his ball rolled into the water because of it.
And the story of his first round at the Masters went down with it.
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