Rory McIlroy has revealed what started his intense stand-off with Bryson DeChambeau at last year’s Masters, and how refusing to back down helped him complete the career grand slam.
Ever since McIlroy surged to Augusta glory, there has been intrigue about the awkward situation that unfolded on the ninth green during the final round. The duo stood over their putts, neither stepping forward to attempt their short birdie efforts.
Yet Rory McIlroy: The Masters Wait – the Amazon Prime documentary which is released on Monday – at last sheds light on the impasse.
McIlroy was three shots clear of DeChambeau as they played the par four and both hit fine approaches to roughly eight feet. To the naked eye, they looked the same distance away.
“I thought it very clearly was my putt,” McIlroy recalled. “I thought his ball was slightly closer than mine. We sort of looked at each other and I’m like, well, ‘I think it’s me to go’. And he’s like, ‘well, I think it’s me to go’.
“It was a very gamesmanship-y matchplay thing. Really, both of us want to putted first, because if you can hole your putt before your opponent has his turn, it puts pressure on them.
“So he said ‘well, why don’t we just throw a tee up for it to see who goes first?’ And I’m like, ‘no, this is the final round of the Masters – this isn’t some game on a Tuesday afternoon somewhere.’ I wasn’t going to wilt in that situation. I was going to stand firm.
“So I said, ‘there’s a referee over there, why don’t we get him up to come and measure?’ And he said, ‘no, no, it’s fine. You can go anyway. I don’t care’.”
McIlroy proceeded to make his three, while DeChambeau – somewhat predictably – charged his attempt past the hole. The gap between the two was suddenly four strokes. The contest between these big-hitters was all but over, as far as McIlroy was concerned.
“I felt like that was a really big moment and I was proud of myself for holding my ground,” McIlroy said. “I felt like Bryson wasn’t really a factor in the tournament after that point.”
However, while DeChambeau was indeed on the slide – he failed even to finish in the top five – McIlroy was still to have an inspired rival. England’s Justin Rose mounted a remarkable challenge that forced McIlroy into a play-off, with the Northern Irishman winning on the first sudden-death hole.
By then, DeChambeau had already vented to the media about his playing partner. “He didn’t talk to me once all day,” he said. “I guess he was just being focused. That’s not me though.”
McIlroy eventually responded to that barb. “I was not there to be his best friend,” he said. “We were trying to win the Masters.”
However, DeChambeau would not leave it there. Perhaps recalling that McIlroy did not wait around to congratulate him at the previous year’s US Open, when DeChambeau denied McIlroy in dramatic scenes on the 18th, he promised to be “chirping in Rory’s ear” in the build up to last September’s Ryder Cup.
As it was, the duo were not directly matched against each other in Europe’s victory at Bethpage Black. However, after this revelation, the passions will inevitably be raised further.
Fans will be itching to see an Augusta rematch at the season’s first major in two weeks’ time.