Rory McIlroy's Mental Strategy at Augusta National

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00:00you know, I think there's been a lot made of every year. Rory comes to Augusta national,

00:03just this huge burden we place on him some years it's, he's leaning into it. And he's so honored

00:08to be here in some place. He wants to play the rest of his life. Other years he's, you know,

00:12he's changed routine. He's showing up late. He doesn't want to talk to him about it.

00:15It's felt like he was really bearing the weight of not having one, but I did feel like there was

00:20a sort of sense of calm today or a sense of, of just acceptance of where he's at as he,

00:26as he makes it here. I think it's natural for the media to kind of overblow the Rory thing every

00:30single year, chasing a grand slam at the masters. And, and, and we, we always talk about that hook

00:36at the 10th hole. Like it was yesterday. It was so long ago. He's a completely different player

00:40today than he was. However many years ago that was what year was that? I mean, it was 2000. Yeah.

00:46It was eight years. Yeah. I don't know what it was. We're not, we're not a golf mystery pod, apparently.

00:54In Colin Morikawa's, uh, uh, press conference today, uh, I believe it was Doug Ferguson asked

01:00Colin like a series of trivia questions. Like, Hey, do you, do you know who won the 1986 masters?

01:052011. 2011. Okay. That was in 2011. We're right in the middle. 2008, 2014.

01:10So he, he asked Colin whether, whether he knew who won the 1986 masters and, and Colin was like,

01:15ah, you know, come on. I don't really know, but I was in there. I was trying to look at all the

01:20years of Jack Nicholas one at like the 72 seventies. He's always, I think he had some of the years

01:24wrong. They're like, yeah, 1986, like his most famous win of all time. Oh, okay. Yeah. So that was,

01:30that was a fun. Yeah. I mean, I just get back to your answer to question with Rory.

01:34Uh, I couldn't agree with you more. I think acceptance is the great place to start. I think

01:40his mental makeup heading into the week is, uh, probably the most important part, uh, of Rory

01:47showing up and whether he'll be able to compete or not. The physical tools are there. I think when

01:52he plays poorly here, it's, it's much more of a mental battle like today, even watching it's any,

01:56he didn't have a swing instructor on the range. He's got Bob Ritello there trying to have the right

02:00mental frame of mind. And, uh, to, uh, the other thing you mentioned is like, he's watching

02:06Bridgerton with his wife, Erica, and he's also reading a novel right now. And if anybody is,

02:13uh, is reading a novel and watching a show, they're pretty like lacks, you know, like I

02:19think anybody can kind of relate to that. Not saying that this means like he feels amazing

02:24about his game. But I mean, one of the stats I just talked about was, uh, heading into the

02:29masters is, have you won? What's your form? And guess what? We've talked about this. Rory

02:34McElroy has been the best player in the world this year. If you're taking your own OWG R 2025,

02:40Rory McElroy, I think would be the favorite. Um, and so with all that being said, I think we look

02:46back to that 2011 year, uh, too much. Uh, he's, he's competed here plenty of times. And I think the

02:53last piece I'll say is that he referenced back to 2019 and says that after that major season

03:03in a year in which he actually won the FedEx copy one, four times, he mentioned that I didn't

03:08play well in the majors that year. And I just didn't put enough emphasis on it. Um, as much

03:13as I should have. And he, and he said, if you look back at my major records since 2019, you would see

03:19that the major record was really, really good. Um, I know he hasn't won yet, but he's put himself in

03:24contention a lot. So when you hear Roy say that those sorts of things, and you, you hear he's

03:29kind of relaxed, the mental makeup seems to be there. Gosh, I I'm buying into the storyline with

03:34Rory this week.