AUGUSTA, Ga. – In finally securing that elusive green jacket last year at Augusta National Golf Club, Rory McIlroy chased a feeling, not an outcome. It was a feeling, McIlroy later explained, of “childlike joy and enthusiasm.” He recalled fondly those days when he’d count down the seconds until he could rush from school straight to Holywood Golf Club in his native Northern Ireland and play until dark, and how, somewhere along the way, he’d lost touch with that kid, only to rediscover his youthful self and realize a lifelong dream.
“It’s almost like an adventure, you know,” McIlroy described. “Once you get out on the golf course, it’s like an adventure, and you’re just going around and you’re chasing this ball and you’re seeing shots and you’re just – you’re so in the moment and in tune with your senses.
“That’s the feeling that we talk about.”
Being a Masters champion now makes it easier for McIlroy to get to that place, to keep swinging freely like he’s done for 36 holes so far this week. He leads this 90th Masters Tournament by a whopping six shots as he’s turned Augusta National, a place that tormented and aged him for more than a decade, into his personal playground.
“You got to stay in your own lane, but it’s hard not to watch that,” said Mason Howell, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion who earned himself a playdate with the defending Masters champion for the first two rounds, as is tradition around here.
Howell won’t stick around for more, but as he stepped off the interview podium for the final time on Friday evening and walked right into an encouraging belly tap from his dad, Robert, it was hard for the 18-year-old from Thomasville, Georgia, to be sour.
“That was such a special moment for me to play with my idol,” Howell said. “I mean, yeah, other than making the cut, for me, that was everything I dreamed it would be.”
A few days ago, McIlroy romanticized golf in the way the game, more than any other sport, connects generations. The 36-year-old McIlroy played two U.S. Open rounds in 2010 alongside Tom Watson, now 76, and here he was about to share another major stage with a kid born in 2005. “No, 2008?” McIlroy corrected himself, still guessing, still baffled.
Howell was actually born in 2007, and nine years later, McIlroy was tossing him a golf ball at the Tour Championship. Long a vestige of inspiration, Howell carried that same ball in his golf bag this week – he even paid it forward on Friday, handing balls to two kids, probably not much younger than him, on the fourth hole. With all that Howell has now gained, it’s going to require a much bigger bag.
As McIlroy cruised to an opening 67 on a firm and fast layout, Howell shot 77. He couldn’t feel his arms as he yanked the first shot of his Masters career onto the ninth fairway, his hat falling off in the process of swinging. He backed that up with a 76 to miss the cut by five shots, yet he was itching afterward to catch a replay of his near-ace at the par-3 12th.
“I thought maybe it took a peek,” said Howell, who tapped in the half-footer for one of his five birdies for the week.
Howell had a front-row seat to 15 more birdies off the clubfaces of McIlroy, who circled six of the last seven numbers he put on his scorecard on Friday. He birdied both par-5s on the second nine despite wayward drives into the trees, though the best of the bunch was a chip-in at the par-4 17th, where McIlroy punched out of the left pines to the ideal angle and then hit his mark perfectly, his ball pitching into the slope, checking and then tracking right into the cup.
“That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in sports,” Howell said, “and I got to witness it in person.”
After McIlroy rolled in a 6-footer to polish off his 7-under 65 and post 12 under, he shook Howell’s hand, looked up at him (Howell has a good six inches on McIlroy) and said, “I hope to see you down the line.”
“Hopefully, he saw that you don’t have to be perfect to shoot good scores,” McIlroy said. “I think when I was 18 and I started to play Tour events, I thought that pros just didn’t make mistakes, and he saw plenty of mistakes out of me over the first two days. Again, I fell back on my short game and my wedge play. So, hopefully he saw someone that wasn’t perfect but was very efficient with how he scored.”
In the rush of media obligations, McIlroy hadn’t had a chance to hear Howell’s takeaways, but he’d be proud.
“He bandages his game really well,” Howell said. “He has like a six-shot lead, I think, so that’s crazy. He just knows where to miss it around here. I mean, now he has all the weight off his shoulders. He’s playing so carefree, and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t get it done this weekend.”
Odds are McIlroy, currently holding the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history, will get to slip the green jacket – his green jacket – on himself come Sunday evening. Five of the six players who led by five at the halfway point went on to win jackets of their own, and the other instance in which McIlroy paced a major field by six through two rounds, at the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional, resulted in an eight-stroke romp.
Meanwhile, for Howell, the adventure continues. He’ll graduated high school, then play a summer full of elite amateur events, a couple more majors, and if everything goes well, a second straight Walker Cup before arriving at the University of Georgia this fall. After that, who knows?
The world is his playground, so long as he keeps swinging.
“I don’t want to change a thing about how I feel about this game,” Howell said. “I mean, I know for these guys it’s a job right now, and that’s what I want it to be for me in the future, but as long as you keep enjoying it, keeping a smile on your face and keep moving forward, that’s how I want it to be for me in the future.”