AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - The early returns are in for Rory McIlroy at the Masters, and so far all is good.
The swing is fine, and so are the ribs. Perhaps more importantly, all seems well in the space between his ears.
Now comes the real test, with a rare career Grand Slam there for the taking.
On a day when par seemed a good score, McIlroy did just a little bit better, shooting a 1-under 71 Friday to inch near the top of the leaderboard in the one major championship he has never won.
It could have been better, as most golf rounds tend to be. Heading into what is expected to be a wet weekend, though, it was just what McIlroy needed to put himself in position for the green jacket that once slipped so agonizingly away.
“I’ve always been comfortable around the lead,” McIlroy said in what seemed like a bit of a message to the rest of the field. “It’s a place that I’m thankfully quite familiar with and know how to deal with.”
That wasn’t always the case, as anyone who is even a casual student of the history of this tournament knows. It was 2011 when McIlroy began Sunday with a four-shot advantage after leading the entire tournament.
What happened next might have broken a lesser player. For all anyone knows, it still may haunt McIlroy every time he drives down Magnolia Lane.
A triple bogey on the 10th hole after a drive into the cabins left of the fairway finally cost him the lead. He ended up shooting 80, and Charl Schwartzel won his first and - so far - only major championship.
McIlroy would bounce back to win the U.S. Open in a romp two months later, so there was no immediate hangover. He would later add two PGA championships and one British Open title to his trophy case.
Try as he might, though, he still hasn’t been able to crack the code at Augusta National.
That could change in his 10th Masters, and there is some precedent on his side. Ben Hogan and Sam Snead were both playing in their 10th Masters when they finally won, and Arnold Palmer won his first at the age of 28 - the same age McIlroy is now.
“There’s a lot of different comparisons you could make,” McIlroy said earlier this week. “But it’s all really meaningless unless you go out there and actually do it.”
McIlroy was meticulous in his preparations for this Masters, coming up from Florida to play 54 holes with members last week and 36 a few weeks before that. He’s coming off a win in Arnold Palmer’s tournament last month, and his confidence in his game is high.
He’s also accepted the idea that pars are good on Augusta National, especially when the winds are swirling like they were in Friday’s second round. A day after opening with a 69 he was at 4-under 140, with a late Saturday afternoon tee time.
“Sometimes pars might be a little bit boring and you might feel as if you want to get a little bit more out of your round,” McIlroy said. “But as you look up the leaderboard and you’re still there around the lead, that’s taken awhile for me to adjust to.”
Still, this is Augusta National, where there are birdies available on the back nine. And McIlroy knew well what Jordan Spieth did to grab the opening day lead when he birdied five straight holes beginning at No. 13.
So he gave himself a little talk and birdied 13 and 14 before making a string of pars to finish his round.
“I said to myself on the 13th tee, “Let’s make four in the next six,” sort of do what Jordan did yesterday,” McIlroy said. “I didn’t quite, birdied the 13th and 14th, gave myself a few more chances coming in and didn’t quite convert.”
He’ll have more chances on the weekend, when Augusta National figures to play long in wet conditions. The course shapes up well for his high draw, and his distance gives him an advantage over all but a handful of fellow competitors.
What McIlroy seems particularly proud of is that his thought process is under control. He’s thinking one shot at a time, not allowing himself to get out of the moment and the task at hand.
Whether that plays out with a green jacket around his shoulders on Sunday remains to be seen. But McIlroy understands the significance of what he’s trying to do, finish a modern career grand slam that only five players before him have managed to pull off.
“I’m an avid fan of the history of the game, and I know a win here and what that would mean and where that would put me in history alongside some of the greatest that have ever played this game,” McIlroy said. “And that would be mean an awful lot to me.”
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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg
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