‘I played with McIlroy at the Masters – what he said speaks volumes’ | Golf | Sport
Rory McIlroy demonstrated his class on the 18th green at Augusta National, delivering a warm message of support to teenage amateur Mason Howell. The 18-year-old is still attending high school and secured his Masters spot by winning the US Amateur title last year.
The Georgia native faced a challenging introduction and finished on nine-over-par, falling five shots short of making the cut. However, he will have gained invaluable experience from his two rounds with McIlroy – Augusta National traditionally pairs the US Am and Masters champions – and world No. 3 Cameron Young. Howell shared what McIlroy said to him as they exchanged handshakes after the five-time major winner capped off a dazzling seven-under-par 65 to establish a remarkable six-shot advantage over 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.
“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.”
In his press conference, McIlroy offered some valuable advice to Howell: “Hopefully, he saw that you don’t have to be perfect to shoot good scores.
“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 sits six shots clear of Sam Burns and Patrick Reed at the halfway stage. Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry are a further shot adrift at five-under.
