2025 Masters preview: Why Rory McIlroy is ready for glory as Bob MacIntyre aims to get into mix

Since 2005, when he was also the player who achieved the feat, only Tiger Woods has won the event from being outside the top ten and, even when the American pulled off his stunning fifth title triumph in 2019 after fearing his career might be over due to injury, he was 11th at the end of day one.

Which is why career grand slam-chasing Rory McIlroy, for example, probably needs to be clean out of the blocks when the 89th edition gets underway on Thursday, having been outside that top ten after the opening circuit in his last six attempts - he’s made ten in total - to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods as a giant of the game.

Even if he does get off to a good start, why should this year be any different for McIlroy, having had 16 attempts to win this title and only really being in with a proper shout in 2011, when he was in pole position from the off and remained there until a back-nine capitulation in the final round saw him end up in a tie for 15th?

To try and answer that, let’s look back at last year’s US Open at Pinehurst because, while he ended up having to swallow a huge dose of disappointment at the end of that week as victory went instead to Bryson DeChambeau, there were definite signs that McIlroy is closer than he’s been for a long time in his quest to kick-start a major career that has been stuck on four wins in the game’s marquee events since 2014.

Ultimately, McIlroy was let down by his putter on that occasion, as was also the case in the final round of the 2022 Open at St Andrews, where the Northern Irishman had no answer on the greens to Cameron Smith’s sizzling last-day surge on the Old Course.

Rory McIlroy’s game in good fettle

In his most recent major outing - in the 152nd Open at Royal Troon last July - McIlroy suffered a disappointing missed cut but, that blip apart, his game has been trending very nicely indeed since Pinehurst, as evidenced by him being crowned as the DP World Tour No 1 for a sixth in November and then winning both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship over the past couple of months or so.

It’s the first time McIlroy has arrived here with two titles under his belt at this important stage of the season and, given that one of those wins came at a cathedral of golf and the other was in the so-called fifth major, he is entitled to feel that this could indeed be his best chance to finally be crowned as a Masters champion since that huge body blow here 14 years ago.

He’ll have a PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, a happy hunting ground, and an Open on home soil at Royal Portrush to come later in the year, but this is the one he wants more than anything and, at a time when the game remains fractured, it would certainly be a narrative that would be widely welcomed if glory on this occasion went to Rory.

Even better if he prevailed in a back-nine battle with Scottie Scheffler and, having triumphed in two of the last three editions with Jon Rahm winning the one in between, there is no denying that the world No 1 and favourite with the bookmakers is going to be the man to beat.

Yes, it’s been a quieter start to his season than in 2022 and 2024, which was caused by needing surgery on his hand after an incident with a broken glass on Christmas Day, but, on the evidence of him shooting rounds of 62 and 63 in his final warm up event, Scheffler is here meaning business again, insisting in his pre-event press conference that some “sniffles aren’t going to stop me”.

Rahm, who joined fellow Spaniards Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia in securing ownership of a Green Jacket, is feeling better about his game and also not feeling as flustered as he did when being the defending champion 12 months ago while DeChambeau, another of the dozen LIV Golf players in the field, can be a danger to McIlroy as well if he can produce his double US Open-winning form over four days here. As will Xander Schauffele if he takes up from winning both the PGA Championship and The Open last year.

In an event that will see two-time winner Bernhard Langer make a 41st and final appearance, the likes of Ludvig Aberg, who finished second on his debut a year ago, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland are capable of adding to the list of European success in this event and, make no mistake, Bob MacIntyre now feels he can emulate 1988 winner Sandy Lyle here after taking his game to another level since his last appearance in 2022.

This year’s edition takes place less than 200 days since the Augusta area suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Helene and there is no denying that certain locations around the course are looking a little different due to trees being lost.

At the same time, though, as someone mentioned to Fred Ridley, the Augusta National chairman, it looks like a “beautiful painting” thanks to a near-perfect early spring bloom of Azaleas and what a backdrop that would provide for Rory McIlroy to add that one glaring omission to his CV.