Schupak: Rory McIlroy, the Masters and facing his Greg Norman complex

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Ever since the emergence of LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy and Greg Norman have been diametrically opposed in their view of professional golf.

McIlroy served as the PGA Tour’s unofficial spokesman while Norman joined the Saudi payroll as LIV CEO with an unlimited budget to make his longtime dream of a new world order for golf a reality. They butted heads making headlines through a war of words, with McIlroy famously declaring that “Greg must go,” and throwing shade on Norman when he won the 2022 RBC Canadian Open for his 21^st Tour title, or as he put it, “one more than someone else.” But when it comes to the majors and the Masters in particular, McIlroy might look in a mirror and see Norman’s sad reflection.

While McIlroy’s major total of four majors by age 25 is twice the haul that Norman collected, Norman was the dominant player of his era and shoulda-coulda-woulda won seven or eight majors. He dominated the game as the best driver of his generation much like McIlroy. The one major his game was designed for was supposed to be Augusta National. As the years passed by and Norman experienced his share of heartbreaking misses, he faced the inevitable question of how does he not win? Whenever McIlroy shows up at Augusta now, he faces the same relentless questioning in the lead up to April.

Both also endured their career low points at the Masters – Norman blowing a six-stroke lead heading into the final round in 1996 and McIlroy shooting 80 to squander the 54-hole lead in 2011. Both ended with the loser needing a hug – Norman from Nick Faldo, who lapped him with a 67to win the title and McIlroy from CBS’s Peter Kostis before he gave a heartfelt interview.

“Greg in 1996 was hard to watch,” said Butch Harmon, Norman’s coach at the time. “That was the longest day I’ve ever spent on a golf course. But it’s a cruel game and it will get you.”

As McIlroy attempts to complete the career Grand Slam for a 10^th time this week and end a major-less streak nearing a decade in length, he’s facing his Norman complex by turning to, of all people, Norman’s old coach. He went to see Harmon in Las Vegas two weeks ago for a lesson.

“Rory wants it so badly that he can’t get out of his own way,” Harmon said. “I was trying to help him to relax, don’t be so aggressive in the first round. Just go shoot 70, put yourself in the mix and see what happens. He gets so amped up here because it’s the last one he hasn’t won. He understands it but understanding it and being able to do it are two different things.”

Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee noted McIlroy’s struggles out of the gate – in his last five Masters, McIlroy averages 73.8 in the first round.

“That speaks to not being in the right place mentally,” Chamblee said. “But whenever he is in a good place — when he does manage to get himself into a good place, say in 2018, he was second after 54 holes, he shot 74 Sunday. In 2016 he was second after 36 holes, and he shot 77 Saturday.

“He plays his best when it means the least, and he plays his worst when it means the most. Now, we can dive in and parse out technical reasons why that is, but the larger landscape is it’s just mental. I think him trying to get over that hurdle and become the sixth person to win the Grand Slam is mentally the most compelling thing that will take place at the Masters.”

Harmon has covered this territory before and spoke to McIlroy about the importance of being aggressive when he should be aggressive and conservative when he should be conservative. Just because he’s got six gears doesn’t mean he has to always be in sixth gear. Follow that mantra, the way another former Harmon world No. 1 did back in the day, and he’ll see Woods’s visage in the mirror and have a good chance to win.

“I explained to him that Greg was so amped up that he almost couldn’t play,” Harmon said of the fateful final round of the 1996 Masters. “You can’t tee off on Thursday and be aggressive on every shot. You can’t do that here. He has to let it happen.”

When Woods was asked Tuesday if he felt McIlroy would join him and Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus in exclusive company, he said, “No question, he’ll do it at some point. He’s just – Rory’s too talented, too good. He’s going to be playing this event for a very long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when.”

But superstars from Lee Trevino to Tom Watson to Arnold Palmer fell short of the career Grand Slam. McIlroy has another chance this week to soar into the company of the all-time greats. Or he can go down alongside Norman as one of the greats who could only get one arm in a Green Jacket. Whose reflection will McIlroy see this week when he looks in the mirror?