TAKE A DEEP BREATH

Rory McIlroy nearly blew another Masters chance because of one simple oversight

Rory McIlroy stood on the 18^th green at Augusta. He had a six-foot putt for the Masters and sporting immortality. To complete golf’s Grand Slam. After so much hype and so many near misses, the burden of expectation was intolerable. The wind of the future was rushing past. He looked uncertain as he assessed the putt briefly, stood, stabbed, and pulled it to the left. He had flunked his opportunity. There was a collective groan in the Augusta gallery, and probably throughout Northern Ireland.

There would now be a play-off with Justin Rose who had been calmly hitting a few shots on the practice ground. He had pre-meditated McIlroy’s inconsistency, his emotional hiatus and recognised his chance. The play-off pitched Rose’s Pragmatism against McIlroy’s Passion. A brilliant climax to an epic four days. Only live sport (or occasionally elections) can keep you up past midnight to discover the outcome. I know this is a cricket column, and I’ll relate it to cricket. Bear with me.

I thought Rose would win the play-off and I’ll tell you why. I ghost-wrote a few pieces for him in his earlier years, and he told me a great story about the time he was the joint leader of the 2007 BMW Championship with Tiger Woods going into the last round. Woods and Rose were playing together and Rose was quite apprehensive about the prospect. He was quite surprised by Woods’ disarming demeanour at the start of the round.

“So we tee off, we’re chit-chatting, we’re having a good time, we’re talking about the Bahamas, and this, that and the other,” Rose said. “And I’m like, ‘oh my god, this is great, Tiger Woods is my best friend’. I’m three under through six, he’s four under through six. We’re like, ‘this is great’.

“And we make the turn and suddenly, it was like goodbye. And it was the greatest lesson I’ve ever had because he did everything so much slower, he locked in, his eyes just went. Obviously, his routine was good, but he walked slower. He just absolutely lasered in and put together a great back nine and won the tournament.

“He told me afterwards that its impossible to maintain that level of total intensity throughout the round. So he tries to be relaxed and free early on, let the round come to him. What will be, will be. Then once he’s found his rhythm, he focuses in on the prize. And do you know, in that period when he was at his peak, he never lost a tournament when he was leading going into the final round.”

This invaluable insight was the catalyst to Rose’s career properly flowering (he became the leading player in Europe later that year) and I thought it might prove decisive yesterday in the Masters play-off. He looked cool and composed. But that was not only to underestimate McIlroy’s brilliance, but also to overlook what he had learnt from that earlier missed putt on the 18^th.

He unleashed an incredible second on the first play-off hole, inside Rose’s excellent approach, to leave him four feet from the pin. But then, suppressing whatever he was feeling inside, he took his time. He waited for Rose to putt out, he sized up his own putt, stood over the ball, took aim, counted to five and stroked the ball regally into the hole. It was the crowning moment of his career, and as he broke down, convulsed with emotion, he declared as much.

McIlroy has attained golfing immortality. He will go on to win more major tournaments because he will have learnt the same thing as Rose did from Woods. Let the round come to you, don’t put yourself under intolerable pressure. Take it easy. Shut out the noise. Compartmentalise. Breathe.

It’s something we all need to do at critical moments in sport, be it standing over title-deciding putts, taking penalties in shoot-outs, serving for the match, batting in nerve-wracking run-chases or bowling final overs in cup finals. I’ve won some and I’ve lost some. The ones I won, I was relaxed and took my time. I shut out the clamour. The ones I lost I was nervous, fearing the worst and I rushed it to get it over with.

I was apprehensive before this last over in the Nat West final and rushed it…

Before being immersed in any climatic sporting moment, take a deep breath. It all sounds so obvious doesn’t it? But when you’re in the middle of it, you can’t always see clearly. Too many factors block your view. Even champions sometimes forget these basic maxims. Listen here to Jordan Speith’s classic meltdown in the 2016 Masters, having won it the year before.

So Rory has learnt his lesson (perhaps) and got not so much a monkey off his back but an orangutan. Great for him, great for golf. Like Sevy Ballesteros before him, he makes the sport so much more watchable. And now for the Open at his home club, Royal Portrush. Could be quite a year for the McIlroys…