We’re just nine days away from the 2026 Masters and, for the very first time, Rory McIlroy enters the tournament as defending champion.
The Irishman’s long-awaited triumph at Augusta last April instantly entered the annals as not just one of the greatest Irish sporting moments of all time, but as one of the most memorable in modern times in golf.
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Hopes are high that this may open the floodgates for McIloy, but there is a reason that it took him 17 attempts to finally claim the Green Jacket.
With Augusta the highest peak to summit in golf, all the stars must align for any player to triumph, and McIlroy’s preparation for this year’s tournament has admittedly been less than ideal.
The 36-year-old withdrew mid-tournament at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this month, struggling through his failed defence of the Players Championship at Sawgrass a week later.
He has not played since Sawgrass, and this week’s confirmation that he will not team up once again with Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic could prove an ominous indicator of his chances of repeat success at Augusta next week.
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Rory McIlroy pulls out of Shane Lowry team-up
Rory McIlroy has opted out of this weekend’s Zurich Classic, putting an end to his streak of taking part in the pairs competition alongside compatriot Shane Lowry.
The Irish duo memorably won the tournament in 2024, before finishing in T12 last year.
However, when the entry list for this year’s edition was released, McIlroy was absent, with Lowry instead playing alongside five-times Major champion Brooks Koepka of the USA.
It will be a shame not to see the Irish pair compete together again this year, but it could tell an even more worrying story in the buildup to the Masters.
Regardless of the potentially ominous tale McIlroy’s absence tells in terms of the severity of his back injury just over a week out from Augusta, there is also a statistical reason that this decision strikes a touch of worry ahead of his Green Jacket defence.
McIlroy will not have played a round of competitive golf in just under a month by the time he tees off in next week’s first round, something which does not bode well for his chances of claiming back-to-back Masters titles.
GolfRamble on Twitter highlighted a remarkable stat, stating that not a single one of the last 11 Masters champions entered the tournament without having played at least one tournament in the preceding fortnight.
Since 2015, every Masters winner has played at least once in the two weeks leading up to the Masters. Quick list of guys who aren’t doing that this year:
Scottie
Rory
Rahm
Bryson
Xander
Fitz
Young
Rose
Reed
That’s 9 of the 12 names at the top of the odds board right now.
— Ramble (@GolfRamble) March 30, 2026
As can be seen by the list of golfers who are in the same boat, McIlroy is not alone among the Masters contenders in choosing to take time off in the buildup to this year’s competition.
However, when the same account broadened out the sample size, it became abundantly clear how little precedent there is for golfers to pull off Masters triumph from this starting point.
Over the past 40 years, only three golfers have ever won the Masters without playing a single tournament in the fortnight prior.
Some people are getting weirdly upset about this so I’ll put it another way. Since the OWGR was established in 1986, here’s a list of every Masters winner who didn’t play in the two weeks prior to their win:
Tiger Woods (2002)
Adam Scott (2013)
Bubba Watson (2014)
3 out of 40. https://t.co/Fl7G3JQpMt
— Ramble (@GolfRamble) March 31, 2026
It will certainly be a historic Masters triumph for more reasons than one, should Rory McIlroy manage to secure a superb back-to-back next weekend at Augusta.
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