{"id":526316,"date":"2026-04-12T05:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/526316\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T05:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:06:18","slug":"rory-mcilroy-showed-true-colours-with-gesture-to-high-school-kid-playing-the-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/526316\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy showed true colours with gesture to high school kid playing the Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n

Mason Howell was given a golfing education by Rory McIlroy(Image: Kohjiro Kinno\/Augusta National\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy showed his class on the 18th green at Augusta National, sending a heartfelt message of encouragement to teenage amateur Mason Howell.<\/p>\n

Howell, 18, is still in high school and qualified for the Masters<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

But he will have learned so much from his two rounds alongside McIlroy<\/a> \u2014 Augusta National has a tradition of pairing the US Am and Masters champions \u2014 and world<\/a> No. 3 Cameron Young.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Tommy Fleetwood admits he is trying to ‘copy’ Rory McIlroy after Masters magic<\/a>READ MORE: Masters star makes ‘scary’ confession despite best round at Augusta National<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

For all the latest news and views from The Masters at Augusta National, visit The Mirror US.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

McIlroy birdied six of his final seven holes to pull clear(Image: Maddie Meyer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Kai Trump Masters phone truth as Donald Trump’s granddaughter told she risks ban<\/a>READ MORE: Jordan Spieth forced to apologise after fan struck at the Masters<\/a><\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mason Howell has made his feelings clear on his experience of playing with Rory McIlroy at the Masters,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[158492,5904,76309,2623,101,10509,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-526316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-augusta-national-inc","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-masters-tournament","11":"tag-rory-mcilroy","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-the-masters","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}