Rory McIlroy has been unleashed. The rest of the Masters field should be terrified

Rory McIlroy's Masters defense began on Thursday with a first-round 67. Maddie Meyer / Getty Images Share full articleAUGUSTA, Ga. — They were quite a pair on the first tee at Augusta National, the high school senior and the defending champ twice his age. Mason Howell could not feel his arms. Rory McIlroy could not stop his hand from shaking as he teed up his ball. Neither player hit the fairway, unless you count the ninth fairway for the teenage U.S. Amateur champ, whose wayward drive was defined by the sight of his hat falling off his head and bouncing off his club face on the follow-through. Howell and his childhood idol laughed, and not for the last time. On the ninth hole, after the kid followed a bad second shot with a brilliant third, McIlroy gave him a thumbs-up, then stood side by side with him off the green as Cameron Young surveyed his putt. The 6-foot-4 Howell towered over the 5-9 McIlroy, but it was clear who was giving the big-brother advice. It was an animated conversation, with McIlroy doing most of the talking and both doing a fair amount of nodding and smiling. Up ahead, an informed Bryson DeChambeau might’ve asked, “Where the hell was this Rory last April?” Hey, that was then and this is now. The stakes and the personalities involved were much different in the final round of the 2025 Masters — when McIlroy gave DeChambeau the silent treatment — than they were Thursday, the first day and the first round of the rest of Rory’s Augusta life. The 36-year-old McIlroy was happy he felt nervous on the opening tee shot — “That’s why we want to be here,” he said — and even happier that those nerves immediately powered down, allowing him to swing away on the first seven holes even though he was scuffling to find his groove. In the past, a slow start here would’ve compelled McIlroy to get tentative and, he said, “a little guide-y.” In the past, the Northern Irishman would have been haunted by the prospect of joining Greg Norman as a generational great who never won the green jacket. “I think winning a Masters makes it easier to win your second one,” McIlroy said after seizing a share of the first-round lead with a 5-under 67. Not that there still aren’t shots at Augusta National that don’t test a man’s belief in himself. “But I think it’s easier for me to make those swings and not worry about where it goes,” McIlroy maintained, “when I know that I can go to the champions locker room and put my green jacket on and have a Coke Zero at the end of the day.” McIlroy has already taken the best punches this tournament and this course can throw at him. Those right hooks to the body started in 2011, when a doughy, 21-year-old Rory carried a four-stroke lead into Sunday only to devolve into a lost little boy who shot 80 and seemed in desperate need of a good cry. Rory was back on the final-round ropes 14 years later. The double bogey at No. 1. The double at 13. The bogey at 14. The missed clincher at 18. But this time around, McIlroy didn’t spit the bit. He beat Justin Rose in the playoff to complete the career Grand Slam and claim his first major victory in more than a decade, then unleashed a primal scream from his toes. That’s why Rory showed up at the Masters this week as a different human being. “Rory’s got the monkey off his back,” said Jack Nicklaus, one of three Masters champs to go back-to-back. “And I think he has a very, very good chance to repeat.” Freddie Couples put it this way: “Rory may never lose this thing again after last year.” How things can change in a matter of 12 months. On the Tuesday night before last year’s Masters, McIlroy drove down Magnolia Lane on his way to a clubhouse dinner with Rose and a few members when he spotted past tournament champions on the balcony, preparing for their annual feast. Rory didn’t want to valet his car and have all those winners see his unworthy self below. “It’s going to be weird,” he told himself. This year? McIlroy parked in the champions’ lot and served up grilled elk sliders, wagyu filet mignon, and sticky toffee pudding to his new peers. “I think for the past 17 years, I just could not wait for the tournament to start,” McIlroy said earlier that day. “And this year, I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started. … I feel so much more relaxed.” It sure appeared that way for most of the round. On one hand, if the mind is telling you that another person should come across as liberated, you might see something that isn’t there. On the other hand, golf is such a cruel and penal game that a player’s body language is easier to read than the greens. And McIlroy looked joyful and loose-limbed out there. Footloose. Fancy-free. “Rory was pretty chatty all day, to be honest,” said Howell’s caddie and high school coach, Jimmy Gillam. “Just a great guy. I was really impressed with how he interacted with Mason and myself.” Said Howell: “Rory is awesome. We had a great walk today.” The kid learned a ton from McIlroy, including how to carry yourself as an all-time great. Howell shot 59 as a 14-year-old, while playing with Division I college golfers, burying a 30-footer on the 18th hole to finish the job. He could be in Rory’s shoes six or seven years from now. But this is still McIlroy’s time, right along with Scottie Scheffler’s. Rory can still become the first non-American to reach double figures in major victories. He can still win another two or three green jackets. McIlroy is playing smarter Augusta National golf now. He got much more out of his round Thursday than he would have in past years by refusing to compound mistakes, and by refusing to waver in the presence of ghosts that no longer exist. This year, he can focus on a small-picture process over the big-picture pain of losing, losing, and more losing. Make no mistake: McIlroy badly wants to win another Masters. His hand was shaking before that opening drive for a reason. “And that’s a good thing,” he said. But that feeling evaporated because he can finally climb that clubhouse stairway to golf heaven, enter the champions locker room, and drink a Coke Zero while wearing his green jacket. That’s what liberation looks like at the Masters. It’s now the most lethal club in Rory McIlroy’s bag. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Ian O’Connor is a columnist for The Athletic. He is the author of six straight New York Times bestsellers. O’Connor was a columnist at various major outlets who earned multiple first-place finishes in contests run by the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press Sports Editors, Pro Football Writers of America, and Golf Writers Association of America. He is a proud former copy boy at The New York Times. Follow Ian on Twitter @Ian_OConnor