Rory McIlroy looks primed to repeat as Masters Champion

It is a popular opinion.

When Rory McIlroy finally sipped a green jacket over his shoulders after winning the Masters last year, many posited that the floodgates would open.

McIlroy had long chased a Masters victory, the final infinity stone in his personal Career Grand Slam quest, and the general consensus was that the psychological relief from capturing it would lead to a different type of play from Rory across the rest of his career. Maybe even specifically on the grounds where he broke through.

Given that Rory has had at least a share of the lead in every Masters round he has played as a winner of the tournament, it has only been two to be clear, that sort of makes sense! McIlroy walked off of Augusta National’s 18th green with an impressive 6-shot lead over the next-closest challengers (Patrick Reed and Sam Burns) and is a weekend away from being the first person to win consecutive Masters tournaments since Tiger Woods a quarter century ago. He has literally doubled the under par score of both Reed and Burns. Birdieing 6 of your final 7 holes will do that.

Time will tell what challenges lurk for McIlroy to win his 6th career major championship and if it will come on Sunday evening. Right now he is playing as if it will indeed. And he is proving that he can get it done in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Consider that at the moment he has hit 13 of 28 possible fairways. Imagine what will happen over the weekend if that gets dialed in?

You never know when it comes to Augusta National. That is the beauty of it all.