Rory’s Masters Pieces – Introduction: Beyond the Obvious

Either you were lucky enough to be there, watched live on TV, or you heard about it after. Just in case you don’t know, Rory McIlroy won the Masters and completed the Grand Slam of Golf.

As sports fans we sometimes imagine or create our own bubble. When we watch something that we ourselves believe is universally appealing, we think everyone else is watching and vested in it too.

Of course outside that bubble, life and other relevant unrelated things do actually go on. I am happy to say I was in that bubble, and like many of you, fully engrossed.

And in this world that we live in – you can go deep in the bubble: everything from instant reaction on social media, television streams, to post-match or event coverage and articles. It literally doesn’t stop. And the archive keeps building as I write (and no doubt, will continue: all the way into AI!). As I took this all in, I found myself by-passing the plethora of obvious observations and commentary and other clichés on offer.

Using both microscope and wide-angle as a Positive Psychology Coach, sports lawyer and advisor, sports and golf fan, high handicap golfer, aspiring writer and more; I always try to frame things through my own lens (or lenses!). This was no different.

Once I started to fully digest and put together all this #content, and from my holistic perspective, I started to understand it better relative to Rory.

And for this Positive Psychology Coach who defaults to the clues that Sports can give us for Peak Performance in every facet of life, I found a treasure trove that was worth the dive.

I have never met Rory McIlroy: yet I felt vested in that round and that moment, as if he were a family member or a best friend. How many of us had to deal with some version of: “Why are you crying, you don’t even know the bloke. It’s only a golf tournament?” And I know I wasn’t alone.

Asking myself the question of why it was resonating so much for me and for everyone else may have been the catalyst. But answering it takes some thought, some work, and much like any golf round, grinding through it.

Despite the incredible and laudable strides to make it more accessible, especially since the arrival and ascent of Tiger Woods almost 30 years ago, golf is still in many ways, an affluent person’s game. 

So, in this still-privileged game of golf, it felt like a privilege to bear witness, from any vantage point, to the events at Augusta.

Winning a golf tournament at professional level is incredibly tough. Winning golf’s greatest tournament (sorry R&A!) means you’ve earned a lifetime pass, exclusively on merit, to its most exclusive club. Then the final piece of a career Grand Slam: well that puts you in a totally different club. One of only 6 now. And the drama of how Rory ultimately ended up getting it done in that round, and in that epic way.

Clearly, those were all factors that made us feel privy to something unique. But for me, that still doesn’t explain it fully.

While it was most definitely monumental in the world of golf, and certainly seismic in the universe of sports; much like Tiger’s statement win at Augusta in 1997, the Masters circa 2025, Rory’s Masters, had an added populist appeal and impact to it. One which made it both stand out and stand alongside and other iconic Masters moments.

Even if you want to view this through the prism of a unifying victory for an immensely popular athlete, that’s only a small part of it. As for a panacea for existential global social and political division; the best it can be is escapist nail-biting entertainment, which took our minds and hearts away from other things. This wasn’t the Tiger Woods watershed Masters moment as a symbol of changing racial consciousness.

I know intuitively that the answers are to be found outside of Rory’s actual golfing performance, or at the very least, not just because of his golf:

• The things he said.
• How he reacted.
• And the way he seemed to process that incredible achievement internally and then own it for himself while still sharing it with us. Viscerally and transparently.

Knowing that but then articulating it in a relatable way is my challenge. Unpacking and aggregating what I found in a cohesive way, and into Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology lessons and concepts. Ones that might work for me, and perhaps, might work for other people as well.

Things that can become part of Our Best Practices – the things we do to be at our best.

In golf it’s you against your opponent, the rest of the field and the course. But it almost always boils down to a player’s own internal contest with themselves. Buying into that jeopardy and tension is what we sign up for. It is most definitely what Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau; and every other player at Augusta signed up for. That’s part of the process.

This event and outcome resonated because it isn’t about just one thing. It isn’t just a few things either. Just like you need to be good in all facets of the game to win a Masters – and then have some luck.

We hope to discover it all when we set out on a journey, but there are some things we will never uncover, no matter how hard we look or try. Just when you find a thread, it leads to another one.

It’s the pieces that make up the whole, and then from the whole of those pieces that sometimes a masterpiece emerges.

In this case, Rory’s Masters Pieces.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will explore and share some of those pieces in a series of short articles that identify and explore some of these areas.

Please join me.