Rory McIlroy turns to Bridgerton and John Grisham to end Masters heartbreak
Considering Rory McIlroy's desperation to win the Masters, a book called The Reckoning might seem rather close to the bone, but the world No 2 is counting on John Grisham's thriller, as well as Bridgerton, to help ease the pressure here this week.
This is McIlroy's 11th opportunity to become the sixth male player to complete the career grand slam – joining Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the pantheon – and each year the burden of the missing Green Jacket inevitably only multiplies for the 35-year-old.
All he can do is take measures to try to reduce the stress when he is away from the course. But having enjoyed his best ever start to a season, with wins at Pebble Beach and at last month's Players Championship at Sawgrass, the expectation on him to finally end his barren run at Augusta is bigger than ever.
'It's just narratives. It's noise,' McIlroy said, when asked about the pressure. 'It's just trying to block out that noise as much as possible. I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year.
'Look, I understand the narrative and the noise, and there's a lot of anticipation and build-up coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job. Hopefully I can give myself a chance to win this tournament and that would be awesome.'
And how exactly does McIlroy intend to 'block out the noise' this week?
'I've got into Bridgerton – I didn't think I would,' he said. 'I was very against watching it, but [wife] Erica convinced me. So we're on a bit of a Bridgerton kick this week, yeah.
'And for the first time in a long time I am reading a novel. I actually got some fiction into my life. It's a John Grisham book: The Reckoning. It's got off to a pretty good start.'
McIlroy was in a positive mood in the Augusta media centre, and with good reason. But the draw for the first two rounds was released an hour later and it does no favours to the Northern Irishman, who has now gone 11 years without a major.
He is one of the great front-runners. His four majors successes have come when he has been setting the pace from the off, so McIlroy prefers an early tee time on the Thursday. But there he is on the starter's sheet going out in the fourth-last group, alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Ludvig Aberg and American Akshay Bhatia.
Those are the breaks, but, after so many close calls in the majors – he has finished second in the last two US Opens and truly should have ended the drought at Pinehurst 12 months ago – McIlroy appreciates he must struggle before he is first to the line again.
'At a certain point in someone's life, someone doesn't want to fall in love because they don't want to get their heart broken,' he said. 'People, I think, instinctually as human beings, we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that's a conscious decision or subconscious decision, and I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years.
'Once you go through that, once you go through those heartbreaks, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you're like, 'yeah, life goes on, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be'. The last few years I've had chances to win some of the biggest golf tournaments in the world, and it hasn't quite happened. But life moves on. You dust yourself off and you go again.'
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Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
‘Man up and get on with it!' – Scots golf legend in astonishing blast at players moaning about US Open rough conditions
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Scottish Sun
5 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Three killer holes at Oakmont including one that cost Tiger Woods a US Open as Rory McIlroy and Co face savage test
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Belfast Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
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