Rory McIlroy has been forgotten about twice. And that's just this week.
He was a hot topic of conversation coming into this Masters, with many wondering if he could
win a green jacket to complete a career Grand Slam. Then Jordan Spieth bolted out of the gate Thursday morning, fired a 6-under 66, which left Rory six strokes back before he even started.
Forget him.
Ohhhh but wait, two birdies on his first three holes Friday put him at 4-under, just two strokes back of Spieth.
Game back on … unnnntil a double bogey at four, bogey at five, bogey at 11 and, with Spieth moving to 8-under, Rory was suddenly eight strokes back.
Done sauce … unnnntil a birdie at 13, one at 15, another at 16 when he drained an improbable 40-footer, and just like that Rory made it back to 3-under for the tournament.
With that, the game is indeed on, as the wind kicked up Friday afternoon, thwarting a Spieth runaway. The defending champ again bolted out of the gate, birdieing two of the first three holes, but he gave it all back and then some, coming in bogey-bogey-par to finish the day 4-over for the tournament.
In the course of 24 hours, McIlroy went from eight strokes back to a spot in Saturday's final pairing. With Jordan Spieth.
The stage is set at golf's greatest theater.
"It would be great for the tournament and create a lot of buzz, but at the same time, I just need to focus on myself and make sure that I play another solid round of golf," McIlroy said after his round of the possibility of being paired with Spieth, who was still on the course. "I've said this from the start, I've been concentrating on myself out there, because if you start to think about anyone else – I've only got the mental capacity to focus on me right now and especially how tough it is out there."
On the day Tom Watson played in his final Masters, the Spieth-McIlroy pairing provided an obvious symmetry. For it was Watson who for years played foe to Jack Nicklaus, providing golf with one of its great rivalries, something the sport has been in search of for a few decades.
Tiger Woods never really had one, other than history, and though the players will downplay it, it's a matter of fact that rivalries make for good theater. And pitting the world's two most popular golfers against one another would make great theater.
"I don't really look at the names on the left of the leaderboard; I'm looking at the number that's on the very far right just to see how many shots I'm back," McIlroy said Friday when asked if seeing Spieth at the top of the leaderboard makes a difference. "Doesn't make a difference to me who it is up there."
Anyone buying that? Anyone think if McIlroy looks up to the leaderboard and sees Danny Lee's name above his he has the same feeling if it were Spieth's?
No disrespect to Lee, but he's an eighth-year pro with one PGA Tour victory who's made the cut twice in five career major appearances. Jordan Spieth is, well, Jordan Spieth.
When Spieth's name is on top, everyone is thinking two things: We got to catch him because he's not coming back to the field; and I want to beat the defending champ.
The reality is Spieth is where McIlroy once was and wants to be again: the guy to beat. Spieth went 1-1-T4-2 in majors last year, eclipsing McIlroy's own two-major-win season in 2014, and suddenly the then 21-year-old Spieth, not the 26-year-old McIlroy, was golf's next biggest star.
Forgotten before, forgotten again, until a couple of birdies on the back nine of Augusta put him right back into the conversation.
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