AUGUSTA: The Augusta National atmosphere was electric as Rory McIlroy stopped-and-started his way to a longed-for Masters triumph on Sunday, but inside the ropes the Northern Ireland star was strictly business, playing partner Bryson DeChambeau said.
“He wouldn’t talk to me,” DeChambeau said. “He was just like – just being focused, I guess. It’s not me, though.”
DeChambeau started the day two strokes behind McIlroy, but quickly found himself tied atop the leaderboard when McIlroy double-bogeyed the opening hole.
DeChambeau then birdied the par-five second to take the lead, only to fall behind again at the third as he dropped a shot and McIlroy made his first birdie of the day.
Another two-shot swing on the fourth saw McIlroy push his lead to three and DeChambeau, the reigning US Open champion, wouldn’t find a way to close the gap.
A double-bogey at the 11th essentially ended his challenge, DeChambeau carding a three-over 75 to finish tied for tied for fifth, four shots behind McIlroy and Justin Rose – who fell to McIlroy at the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.
“Just more of the same with my irons,” DeChambeau said, adding that they just weren’t “dialed-in.”
He did have time amid his own struggles to spare some sympathy for McIlroy when his second shot at the 13th bounced into the water for a costly double-bogey.
“I wanted to cry for him,” DeChambeau said. “I mean, as a professional, you just know to hit it in the middle of the green, and I can’t believe he went for it, or must have just flared it.
“There were times where it looked like he had full control, and at times where it’s like, what’s going on?” DeChambeau said. “Kind of looked like one of my rounds, actually.”
McIlroy, who was making his 11th attempt to complete a career Grand Slam at the Masters, said he was so nervous before the round that he had to force himself to eat.
And he didn’t try to calm himself with conversation with the player who took advantage of his late collapse at Pinehurst last year to win a second US Open title.
“No idea,” DeChambeau said when asked how McIlroy was feeling on he course. “Didn’t talk to me once all day.”
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