Chamblee said McIlroy is playing well at a time when his main competitors have various issues
Masters: What is Amen Corner?
Augusta National is the home of the Masters Tournament and Amen Corner, considered hallowed grounds in the golf world.
Ginny Beagan, Augusta Chronicle
- Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee believes Rory McIlroy is in top form and well-positioned to win the Masters.
- The Masters has been a challenge for McIlroy in the past, with Augusta National seemingly bringing out the worst in his game.
- Despite past struggles, Chamblee argues that time is on McIlroy’s side, and his power and experience could be advantageous.
Rory McIlroy can forget about flying under the radar entering the Masters Tournament next week.
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said during a teleconference on Tuesday that the outcome of the 89th Masters is in McIlroy’s hands.
“This Masters is his to win or lose,” Chamblee declared about the circumstances entering the tournament April 10-13 at the Augusta National Golf Club. “From a technical and mental standpoint, this is Rory’s. There has never been a better week for him to win the Masters.”
Chamblee based his bold prediction on two factors: McIlroy, ranked No. 2 in the world, is playing at a high level. He won The Players Championship in a three-hole playoff over J.J. Spaun after rallying from four shots back at the start of the final round, and won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am by two shots with weekend rounds of 65-66.
McIlroy has tied for 17th or better in all five PGA Tour starts this season, with three top-five finishes, and tied for fourth in a DP World Tour stop at Dubai. McIlroy made a run at Texas Children’s Houston Open winner Mi Woo Lee on March 30 before falling into a tie for fifth.
McIlroy’s main rivals ‘off their game’
At the same time, his chief rivals are battling a bit.
World No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler, the defending Masters champion, got a late start to the season after a hand injury and has failed to win a tournament this season. Scheffler enters the Masters without a victory for the first time in three years but he has finished among the top-25 in all six starts this season and tied for second at Houston, one shot behind Lee.
No. 3 Xander Schauffele, who won two major championships last year, has played only four times because of a rib injury after the first week of the season, and has yet to post a top 10. Schauffele tied for 12th in his last start, the Valspar Championship, but plunged to 76th in The Players with a final-round 81.
No. 4 Collin Morikawa is also looking for his first victory of the season. He finished second at The Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational and tied for 10th at The Players but has struggled a bit with his short game and putting and picked The Players to get into a spat with the media.
“His [McIlroy] chief opponents are all a little off their game,” Chamblee said.
The highest-ranked player in the Masters field who has won a tournament this year, other than McIlroy, is No. 5 Ludvig Åberg, who won the Genesis Invitational. Aberg played in his first Masters last year and finished four shots behind Scheffler.
Masters has been McIlroy’s ‘nemesis’
The Masters has been McIlroy’s White Whale. He needs to win at Augusta to become the sixth player in history to win the career grand slam, and it’s also been nearly 11 years since he last won a major, after capturing four in four years between 2011-2014.
McIlroy has won two PGA Championships (2012, 2014), a U.S. Open (2011) and a British Open (2014). He has seven top-10 finishes in the Masters.
Chamblee, noting that McIlroy said he watched the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” the night before the Players playoff, had an analogy from that movie.
“I would say that Augusta National is the Miranda Priestly to Rory McIlroy’s Andrea Sachs,” Chamblee said of Priestly, the domineering character in the movie. “It is literally his nemesis. It brings out the worst golf in Rory annually that we see. He annually underperforms there. He hits on average about 42 greens. On average, the winner hits about 52. There are things about that golf course that have been very problematic for him.”
However, Chamblee said time is on McIlroy’s hands at the age of 35.
“We keep saying he’s got plenty of time, and he does,” Chamblee said. “This is a golf course that bows a little bit to age and experience, and from a power standpoint, he’s never been more powerful, metaphorically and literally. It’s his if he takes care of business.”
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