AUGUSTA, Ga. – The rush came over Rory McIlroy again.
His heart rate quickened. His hands started shaking, making it harder to keep his ball on the tee.
“That’s a good thing,” he said Thursday. “That’s why we want to be here. We want to be able to try to play our best golf when we’re feeling like that.”
The question everyone wanted to know after the first round of this 90th Masters was whether it all felt different to McIlroy now that he’s a living legend, now that he’s a career Grand Slam champion.
It’d be understandable, of course, if there was some sort of emotional letdown in his first round since his long-awaited breakthrough. If he chose to bask in the rarity of his achievement and relive, over and over, one of the most thrilling final rounds that’s ever been played here.
But that’s not what happened Thursday. McIlroy was nervous and anxious and jittery, just like he always is here.
“I’m thankful that I felt the same as I always have,” he said. “I think it would be worrisome if I didn’t feel that way because it definitely still means something to me.”
Not every tournament does to McIlroy, not anymore. It’s gotten harder for him to get up for run-of-the-mill tour events that he’s already played a dozen times. No one can fault him for that. His stature and priorities have changed.
But the Masters was, is and will always be different for him. When he spoke the other day about the moving goalposts of his career, of new destinations along his journey, he didn’t mean, specifically, this week’s tournament, and the opportunity to become the first repeat champion in nearly a quarter-century.
“It’s the first round of major season,” he said. “The first round of the 16 most important rounds of the year.”
And he began this major season with a statement, getting the most out of his 5-under 67 that gave him a share of the early lead. It was his second-best start to a Masters, and just the third time in 18 tries that he’s opened with a round in the 60s.
Was it the green jacket bump?
Possibly.
That first-tee nervousness – the physiological reminders that he still cares – faded as he progressed through the round. But there was a sense of freedom and comfort that he’d never before experienced at Augusta National. Even as he found only five fairways on Day 1, McIlroy said he just kept “swinging,” trusting that eventually he’d find his groove. And sure enough, he played his last 11 holes in 5 under.
“I think winning Masters makes it easier to win your second one,” he said. “It’s hard to say because there’s still shots out there that you feel a little bit tight with, and you just have to stand up and commit to making a good swing and not really worry about where it goes. But I think it’s easier for me to make those swings and not worry about where it goes when I know that I can go to the Champions Locker Room and put my green jacket on and have a Coke Zero at the end of the day.”