It is Nadal’s first visit to the Masters and he has a tee time on Monday. Right now, though, the Spaniard is utterly engrossed in McIlroy’s pursuit of another Green Jacket – and it’s intoxicating to witness one of sport’s true immortals conquer this game’s most daring stretch through the eyes of another.
He’s exuding more nerves than the man inside the ropes, skittish and twitching around in his own idiosyncratic way like he once prowled the tennis court. “Mamoosh” comes Nadal’s visceral cry, breaking the silence after the emphatic thump of McIlroy’s drive which splits the fairway.
McIlroy is bouncing again. He had began this Sunday afternoon stuttering, contriving to double bogey the fourth with a three-putt from close range before another mistake on the sixth. That six-stroke 36-hole lead that was supposed to precede his weekend procession had very briefly become a three-shot deficit. McIlroy has always been more comfortable being the hunter over the hunted. Birdies at seven and eight restore parity before this defining trip to Amen Corner.
Flanked by a Green Jacket and childhood friend Tomeu Salva, Nadal is scooting around the patrons for a vantage point. An Augusta National navy cap – available only at the club’s exclusive pro shop – conceals the beaming sunshine but not Nadal’s identity. He embraces every single gushing fan that approaches him.
He’s chaperoned into the 12th grandstand and surveys the lay of the land. The no phone rule is Augusta’s greatest asset and Nadal is embracing his new analogue nirvana. A change to the giant leaderboard to the left of the 11th green catches his attention. “Rose has gone to 10,” he tells me, pointing out that the Englishman had bogeyed 11 and 12 up ahead. The romantic story of Rose defying both Father Time and years of Masters heartache was quickly beginning to unravel.
One by one on this Masters Sunday, McIlroy’s challengers began to fade. His playing partner Cameron Young was riding his luck early on but that ran out when his putter turned cold.
Up ahead, Shane Lowry had exited the stage before the second nine. Scottie Scheffler, as always, was lurking, but this time at arms’ length.
A flustered elderly woman approaches Nadal at the back of the grandstand overlooking Golden Bell. “I almost fainted when I saw you,” she sputters. Many would have the same reaction when faced with McIlroy’s next shot as the Masters hung in the balance. The gusts of wind were as strong and unpredictable around the 12th hole as they had been all week.
“It was all over the place,” McIlroy explains in his post-round press conference. “When I stood up on the tee, it felt like it was off the right, and I looked at the 11th flag, it was blowing right to left. But I was patient, and I waited to feel where the wind should have been coming from, and I knew it was just a perfect three-quarter nine-iron.”
McIlroy heeds Jack Nicklaus’ famous advice and aims at the middle of the bunker, yet his ball flares slightly right, resting only six feet from the pin. Nadal scans the leaderboard again, realizing McIlroy will go three shots clear with this birdie.
“Absolutely huge,” McIlroy says of this defining moment. “A huge shot in the tournament.”
When McIlroy converts the birdie, Nadal throws a fist-pump with the same ferocity that would follow a crushing forehand winner on clay. “Vamos!” he bellows, giving his identity away to a few more. Nadal is living and breathing every moment of this, perhaps more than any other patron. He has a unique understanding of the flow state in which McIlroy has found himself.
Under the Big Oak Tree as he began his round, Nadal was “hopeful” McIlroy would defend his Green Jacket, becoming only the fourth golfer in history to do so. Back then it was anyone’s game. But now things were starting to unfold just as he had planned. McIlroy strolls on, having played the world’s most daunting par 3 in a combined four shots over the weekend. Nadal, meanwhile, vanishes into the dust on the 13th, scrambling through the patrons with floored jaws who had begun to clock his presence.
The allure about Rory McIlroy is that you can’t enjoy his genius without the constant fear of self-implosion. Suspicion that McIlroy could once again capitulate around the par-5 was wiped out by a monstrous drive which left him only an eight-iron into the green. He made birdie, ensuring he played Amen Corner in two-under par.
The biggest sign of a wobble came up ahead on 15. There was a collective gasp from the grandstand to the left of the green as McIlroy’s third appeared to be heading for a watery grave. A brilliant two putt from the front edge ensured his lead remained three.
“I don’t make it easy,” McIlroy laughs afterwards. “I used to make it easy back in my early 20s when I was winning these things by eight shots.”
Two more masterful up-and-downs came on the 16th and 17th and by this stage the anxiety around McIlroy had finally dissipated. He needed six down the last, even affording one more heart-stopping trip to the pines before his coronation ensued with an early raise of the arms of the final green.
Over by the scorer’s building McIlroy is not immediately welcomed by Nadal – there will be time for that – but by those who have followed his journey so closely. His parents, Gerry and Rosie, look emotionally wrecked but are beaming and share hugs with Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood. They had missed McIlroy winning the career Grand Slam here last year because they were busy moving house in Northern Ireland.
“I wouldn’t be sitting up here if it wasn’t for them,” McIlroy says. “I had to persuade them to come this year because they thought the reason I won last year was because they weren’t here. I’m glad we proved that wrong, so they can keep coming as long as they want.”
And so at long last, the floodgates have opened for the game’s most enthralling champion.
“Rory may never lose this thing again after last year,” the old sage Fred Couples only half-joked way back on Thursday afternoon.
Maybe he was on to something.