Indo Sport
Rory's Masters double | Another Augusta rollercoaster | Instant reaction with Alan Shipnuck
13 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Okay, you're welcome. You know why you're here. Rory McIlroy has just won a second green jacket, sixth major in thrilling, thrilling fashion. Our golf coverage, as ever here in Indosport, is sponsored by Sky Sports, where lots of you were watching the golf, I'm sure, over the past four days. Every major live on Sky across the summer. And who else could we talk to on the whistle?
I mean, we're speaking just as McElroy has walked off the 18th green and hooked his parents who were there to see this one. And of course his wife, Erica and daughter Poppy and the entourage at large.
Chapter 2: What does Rory McIlroy's back-to-back Masters win mean for his legacy?
We're all there again. Who better to talk to? But Alan Shipnuck, author of Rory, the heartache and triumph of golf's most human superstar. You are very welcome. I'm conscious. We spoke just last week, but this is an emergency.
Or it's a celebration. I mean, this was always the – for a year we've been talking about what could Rory do going forward, this last piece of his career. And this was a resounding answer because he was never on top of his game and he still won the Masters. And it just shows – he's cracked the code at Augusta National, but the –
the the grit and the determination and the absence of panic you know i think the rest of us were probably panicking and rory just kept doing his thing like it was a very mature business-like victory and that portends very well as we look forward we've never seen him win in this fashion before not a major certainly
no i mean a little bit it reminds me a little bit of valhalla you know the pga championship he won because that was kind of scrappy and there was a lot of jockeying for position and then rory just just kind of found it on the closing holes and nobody could keep up with him and that was really the case i mean obviously a tough start but
But, you know, he played the last 11, 12 holes and four under up until 18 when things went a little sideways. But even then, you know, that could have been like a wing foot moment with Phil. You know, he could have done something crazy, made a mistake, blown the whole thing. But he kept his cool, hit a nice second shot. He never looked stressed. He just...
uh it was just a workman-like victory and we haven't seen that from rory so he's become a more polished more mature more well-rounded golfer and this is this is almost tiger-like he just did what he had to do to win he let other guys beat themselves you know obviously rose went backwards sam burns went backward the only guy who really showed up was scotty scheffler but he was just too far back and rory just he just kind of cruised uh so
Late period Rory McIlroy. This is going to get very interesting.
Very interesting. Very interesting. Because on the Friday when it was put to him in his press conference that you are seven under through the eight par fives and you haven't hit a fairway in any of them. What does that mean about you? And he said, maybe I've become a wildly old veteran, you know, and said it with a little kind of degree of humor.
But then obviously Saturday you felt, well, it's caught up with him. You know, he just pummeled from all sides on Saturday. There's the psychological, I use the word advisedly, but like the trauma of losing a six shot lead, the embarrassment almost of losing a six shot lead. And I would say today when he flew the sixth green, and made bogey fresh from making that double two holes previously.
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Chapter 3: How did Rory maintain composure during his rollercoaster weekend at Augusta?
I mean, he drove that one 350. Didn't hit a great second shot, but hit it in a safe spot, got up and down. And that was a crucial moment. And that little iron shot in 12, you know, that's the scariest hole in championship golf. And he just stuffed it in there.
And even, you know, even though he had missed that putt on nine, it's like all of a sudden he just started believing he was going to make putts when he had to. And so... I think, you know, Rory, he's died a thousand deaths on the golf course and nothing can rattle him anymore after last Master's Sunday. And so it just showed up today. Absolutely no panic.
The rest of us probably lost hope, but he never did. And then he just, I mean, he flushed it the last, you know, 12, 13 holes until that drive on 18. But it was really command performance coming home.
Yeah, it was inconceivable that it would be that comfortable in the end because, as you say, he's died a thousand times. So on six, where he flies the green and he makes that bogey, which is, again, fresh from the three-put on four, where, again, he has that pull left.
You know, because all through the build-up on Sunday, certainly on Sky TV over here, they were analysing how, with his irons in particular, he's pulling everything left and he pulled that one on...
four left and then he had a three put and then he flies the green and you really think he's in so much trouble there but as you say that brilliant response with a birdie on seven and then akin to the first round the eight hole in round one he pummeled that three wood up the hill they start you know with the drive on the analysis of Faldo was that the drive actually he saved it with his hands and he was sort of muttering to himself he knew it wasn't right but then he whips that you know towering I don't know what club it was
to set up the eagle chance on eight. And then he had birdie chance on nine. And then, I mean, 11, the two great puts to save power on 11. I mean, well, sorry, the first one was bad. He left it short, but a great power, great saving power put on 11. And then as he stood on 12 and they took an age to hit the ball, you know, Harry's out checking the wind. They're talking to each other.
I was like, geez, split the fairway. Just split the fairway. Or is it not the fairway? Split the bunker. We've seen this before. Just split the bunker. And he goes to the pin.
Yeah, it was ballsy. That was a ballsy shot. And even if he didn't, I think he was probably maybe aiming a couple yards left of that. But I mean, it was just... It was, it was, it reminded me of some of Tiger's victories where he just, you just hang around and you let guys beat themselves. Cause they, you know, Cam Young, the first six holes looked unbeatable.
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Chapter 4: What psychological challenges did Rory face during the tournament?
He really was.
He was tired. And it showed in his play and showed in his mannerisms. And I think that almost carried over to the beginning of this round. But once he got... It was like once things got down to the nut-cutting time, it was... He just... He perked up. And... I wouldn't recommend making a double bogey every Sunday at a major championship, but sometimes it almost relaxes him. It did last year.
It almost felt like this one did. He's like, okay, I've screwed up. I've lost the lead. I'm three back. Now I can just relax and play golf. It would be nice if he didn't have to go to the depths of despair, but it's just what works for him. And then he just played with more freedom. And You know, they weren't showing the ball speed numbers like they will at a tour event.
Augusta frowns on that in the telecast, but there's no doubt that he was picking up speed as the round went on because you could see it in his swing. He was just letting go of the club where it felt like early in the day, he was kind of steering it and holding on a little and almost afraid of the mistakes. And then once he makes the mistakes, he's like, okay, this isn't so bad.
I've been here before. And it's a funny psychological trick. He's lucky that... that, you know, no one, no one pushed forward and, you know, three strokes on Sunday, a third of the way through the round is not nothing, but, um, it was, you know, the, the wind came up, the course was playing tough. It was dry. It was starting to turn purple on some of those greens.
I mean, this was, this was probably the hardest conditions of the week. And And then he knows how to play this course in any conditions now. And he has the talent and he has the ball flight coming into those greens with those towering iron shots. And so he was lucky in certain ways. And that's part of winning major championships. The stars have to align. And
know cam smith going crazy on the back nine at the old course like that was unlucky wyndham clark with one career victory playing the best run of his life on sunday at the u.s open that was unlucky um you know the bryce the shot that bryson hit on the last hole at pioneers he could never do that again you know rory got struck by lightning a few times during that drought and of course there was some self-induced um mistakes and everything else but
Some of those turns were stolen from him. Nobody stole this one. Everyone just kind of let him hang around, which is a huge mistake because he had the belief, he had the know-how, and that was very evident the last three hours of this tournament.
Yeah, it's so true. And I agree with you totally on Saturday. I felt tired was the word. As he was walking to the 16th on Saturday, I thought he was empty, empty. And it is amazing, whether it's adrenaline or something else, that he managed to just look so fresh again by the middle of the back nine today. It was unforeseeable in a way.
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Chapter 5: What strategies did Rory use to regain confidence during the competition?
And of course, Rose, who nobody would have been unhappy, I think, to see win really given how brilliant he's been at Augusta over the years and the way he's missed out so, so narrowly twice, you know, he had control of the thing. And it's that point you said about nerves, you know, like the stab on 12, you know,
Yeah, that was a killer.
Then the bogey out of nowhere in 11. And then, you know, he hits a great second into 13. He's there in two and he just races his first one by. It's a three putt. He walks over the par, but it feels like a bogey. And that was really tough on Rose. That killed him.
I mean, he had a chance to take control of the golf tournament and he just shrank from the moment.
Yeah.
You know, it's tough. Like, we all love Justin Rose. He's a classy competitor. He's this lion in the game. And we remember sort of the flashy putts he made on Sunday last year. Everyone forgets, like, he was seven back starting the final round last year. And he was just playing carefree. And then as soon as he got the lead, you know, he bogeys 14, he bogeys 17. And it's just...
a lot of guys want it too much at augusta national and and they get in their own way and that was very evident when watching rose you know he just had a nightmare stretch there and that blew him out of the tournament and you know cam young didn't have a signature mistake but he didn't make a birdie on the back nine and there was a lot of those funnel pins there's obviously two gettable par fives he just
His inexperience showed. He won the Players' Championship. It's a big deal. It's a great tournament. It's not the Masters. And he just looked a little tight out there. And as Rory was playing with more freedom, you could see that Cam Young was feeling the weight. His clubs started to look heavy. He was laboring out there. And so it's just...
McElroy's put himself in this situation so many times, and you can just never shovel dirt on his grave. He's never dead. That gif of the Undertaker coming out of the coffin, that's Rory in a nutshell. It's one of his most impressive traits. That...
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Chapter 6: How did Rory's performance on the final day compare to previous rounds?
Just murmur something in my ear. Okay, we're good.
i think that's an underrated bit um um so it's you know six major championships 13 months ago we would have said that as much as rory has done in the game it's felt like he's underachieved and now maybe he's going to overachieve like it's it's gonna be it's gonna be really fun to see where he goes from here yeah it's funny in our time there was um a moment um last year at the
some people sort of kind of got an interview with Rory that they shouldn't really have got the chance to arm a bit and Rory's a nice guy and he kind of, okay, go on then, I'll do it, even though it was not meant to happen.
And Harry was walking by me at the time and was not impressed, you know, and was talking about like his little brother, the goodness of his brother had been leveraged once again and he was like, oh, that's a disgrace that happened and, you know, not happy. So the dynamic there is I do feel he's always looking out for him and is conscious of, you know, the
where he's criticised sometimes or taken advantage of sometimes his time or, you know, that geniality sometimes in those circumstances. So, yeah, Harry Diamond is right to mention because even in your book and even the documentary, he's like a unknowable in the background figure, refuses to take his moment in the sunshine.
Yeah. Well now it's like, he can't ever do an interview. The mystique is too big. Like this is his brand and it's great.
I mean, we love it because even though there's always been this code of, you know, Omerta around the caddies, you know, Bones when he was caddying for Phil had a high profile, Steve Williams, he was grouchy, but he still talked to reporters and he was kind of this cult figure with the unbuttoned jumper at the masters. And, you know, he looks so macho with his chest popping out and like, yeah,
um the caddies do become mini celebrities in their own right it's not helpful to what to what they're trying to accomplish as as the sidekick but harry's so steadfast i mean it's it's impressive yeah you you said there um you know rory several times over as as you know turn has been stolen from or kind of lightning in a bottle several times over
you could definitely argue that he's getting his just desserts for going through that. Now it was very, he had a very memorable line after one of them. It's hard to keep track of which one where he said, I go through a thousand more Sundays like this to win another major.
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