{"id":550876,"date":"2026-03-19T16:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550876\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T16:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:09:18","slug":"what-rory-mcilroy-learned-from-phil-mickelson-about-winning-at-augusta-national-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550876\/","title":{"rendered":"What Rory McIlroy learned from Phil Mickelson about winning at Augusta National \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Photo: Augusta National]<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy returns to Augusta National as something he and the sport itself spent years aching for him to become: the defending champion. The green jacket is his. The pursuit that defined and at times consumed him is over. The story of how he finally broke through after all the near misses and the weight of expectation traces back in small part to Phil Mickelson.<\/p>\n

With the tournament three weeks out, the Masters hosted its pre-tournament virtual press conference with its reigning champion on Wednesday, and McIlroy obliged the ritual, touching on his Champions Dinner menu, fielding the expected questions inhabiting the role that once felt so distant. But the most revealing moment came when he reflected on that final round, the one that nearly swallowed him whole: the double at 13, the bogey at 14, the sudden sense that history might once again slip through his fingers.<\/p>\n

Related: The messy truths Brian Rolapp will learn about pro golf<\/a><\/p>\n

What he said about surviving that stretch, about what he found in himself when the tournament threatened to turn, offered a window into something that statistics cannot hold. \u201cI think when I look back at the round when I was aggressive and when I played aggressively I was rewarded and I played well\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cYou know, when I made double at the first, I played pretty aggressively, hit a driver to the front of the green, and made a birdie. Aggressive with my 5 iron on 4 and made birdie. You know was went at the pin on 9. Made birdie. 10 made a birdie. So, like, I was being rewarded for being aggressive, and then I obviously got the lead. And then the first time that my mindset or my tactics went a little bit defensive, like trying to protect the lead, that\u2019s when I got into trouble. Obviously, what happened on 13 and on 14, and when I got to 15 again, I needed to be aggressive. I needed to make a birdie again and I was able to do it. \u201cSo there\u2019s probably a lesson in there somewhere of not taking your foot off the gas. I thought I was sort of doing the smart thing by playing 13 as a three-shotter and trying to protect the lead that I built. But in hindsight, everything that went well for me that day and that week was when I played aggressively when I went for my shots. That\u2019s probably the lesson to learn. And I guess my going from 13 tee to then 15 tee, look, I didn\u2019t have a choice, right? It wasn\u2019t quite now or ever. I still believed I had chances to win the Masters Tournament going forward but at the same time I knew I needed to play the last four holes in 2 under par to have a chance to win the tournament. My mindset went back from protecting to chasing or being more aggressive.\u201d In dissecting what had gone wrong at Augusta over the years, McIlroy arrived at a truth that was almost mundane in its clarity: he had been tentative. A cautious approach born of respect left him in the wrong places around the greens, staring up at up-and-downs that the course had no intention of surrendering. The margin for error at Augusta is not slim; it is surgical. Hesitation, it turns out, is its own kind of error.<\/p>\n

Which is where Mickelson enters the story. With three green jackets to his name and one of the great short games in the game\u2019s history, Mickelson told McIlroy something years earlier that only now fully landed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played a practice round with Phil Mickelson maybe I don\u2019t know 10 or 15 years ago probably closer to 15 years ago and I always remember he said to me \u2018Rory one of the reasons I love Augusta National is because I feel I can be so aggressive here.\u2019 I remember thinking, \u2018What does he mean?\u2019 I feel the opposite\u201d McIlroy explained. \u201cI feel I can\u2019t be aggressive here because there\u2019s so many bad places to miss.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Phil had so much still has probably so much faith in his short game that if he does miss an approach shot by being aggressive he still feels he can get that ball up and down. I think I would say by becoming a better putter and by maybe working on my short game a little bit and becoming better around the greens that probably allowed me to become more aggressive with my approach play at Augusta. I think that\u2019s been a big part of the reason why I\u2019ve well now that I\u2019ve eventually won there but why my play has gotten better there over the years.\u201d The question put to McIlroy was a natural one and perhaps the most interesting of the session: now that the burden has been lifted has he sought out those who have lived on Augusta\u2019s other side? \u201cI honestly think that I\u2019ve done it once and I\u2019ve it\u2019s not as if I have to win it again to win the Grand Slam. I think it was sort of two things that won; obviously wanted to win the Masters so badly but then obviously at the same time knowing what the Masters would give me and the people that it would put me alongside\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cSo I think now going to win the Masters just to win the Masters is a nice thing. But no I haven\u2019t really spoken to anyone about that. But I think that I\u2019ve won it once and I feel like that will make it a bit easier for me to win again.\u201d April will provide the answer. Augusta always does. Whatever the jacket\u2019s next chapter holds McIlroy is not yet thinking about defence or legacy or the weight of expectation redistributed. He is still inside the moment still feeling the warmth of something long chased finally caught.<\/p>\n

Related: Rory McIlroy had an interesting first take on Brian Rolapp\u2019s plan to remake the PGA Tour<\/a><\/p>\n

The peace of a man who no longer has to wonder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me feel incredibly grateful for everything that\u2019s happened in my life\u201d McIlroy said of the win. \u201cI think that\u2019s been the overwhelming feeling of having this jacket for a year is just how honoured and grateful I am that I was able to do it and how grateful I am that I\u2019ve had so much great support along the way. There\u2019s some I talk about the morning after getting the world No. 1 and having this sort of empty feeling I didn\u2019t have that with this. I think I was chasing it for so long. But as time goes on it becomes normal and it\u2019s been normal for me to go into my closet and see the green jacket hanging there. I only have few more weeks with it unfortunately. But hopefully it\u2019s not the last time I get to bring off property.\u201d The 2026 Masters begins on 9th April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Augusta National] Rory McIlroy returns to Augusta National as something he and the sport itself spent years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,198826,63,755,272483,265322,272484,258131,130098,44,1747,1205,756,85],"class_list":["post-550876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-augusta-national","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-analysis","tag-golf-majors","tag-golf-mindset","tag-masters-2026","tag-masters-tournament","tag-news","tag-pga-tour","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}