Mason Howell has made his feelings clear on his experience of playing with Rory McIlroy at the Masters, where the reigning champion has surged into a six-shot lead
Mason Howell was given a golfing education by Rory McIlroy(Image: Kohjiro Kinno/Augusta National/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy showed his class on the 18th green at Augusta National, sending a heartfelt message of encouragement to teenage amateur Mason Howell.
Howell, 18, is still in high school and qualified for the Masters by winning the US Amateur last year. The Georgia native experienced a steep learning curve and finished at nine over par, missing the cut by five shots.
But he will have learned so much from his two rounds alongside McIlroy — Augusta National has a tradition of pairing the US Am and Masters champions — and world No. 3 Cameron Young.
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Howell revealed what McIlroy told him as they shook hands after the five-time major champion put the bow on a scintillating seven-under-par 65 to pull a mind-boggling six shots clear of the field.
“Rory was awesome,” Howell told reporters. “He said, ‘I hope to see you down the line. We’ll play some practice rounds coming up.’ So I couldn’t have been more thankful to be paired with Rory this week, and how much I learned from his game.
He continued: “I couldn’t have asked for a better two days. Obviously, I wish I played a little bit better, but playing alongside Rory and Cam and seeing the show that they put on, that’s something I’ll remember forever and something I can go home and learn from and just push myself to work even harder.
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McIlroy birdied six of his final seven holes to pull clear(Image: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
“You got to stay in your own lane, but it’s hard not to watch that. That chip-in on 17 was unreal. That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in sports, and I got to witness it in person, so that was awesome.
“I mean, I felt like I hit it OK today. Just couldn’t get anything to go. Kind of the story of the last two days. But it was a great experience.”
McIlroy shared some wisdom for Howell in his press conference. He said: “Hopefully he saw that you don’t have to be perfect to shoot good scores.
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“I think when I was 18 and I started to play tour events, I thought that pros just didn’t make mistakes, and he saw plenty of mistakes out of me over the first two days.
“Again, I fell back on my short game and my wedge play. So hopefully he saw someone that wasn’t perfect but was very efficient with how he scored, and I think to be successful at the professional level, that’s a big part of it.”
McIlroy holds a six-shot lead over Sam Burns and Patrick Reed at the halfway mark. Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Wyndham Clark are a shot further back at five under.