Rory McIlroy Reflects On What Went Wrong During Disastrous Masters, Admits He Got Ahead Of Himself

The 2023 Masters marked Rory McIlroy's ninth opportunity at completing the career Grand Slam with a win at Augusta National. And he entered Thursday's first round convinced that this was going to be the year that he finally slayed that dragon.

While having confidence is a must for any professional athlete to have any shot at succeeding, there is a fine line between having self-belief and getting ahead of yourself.

READ: RORY MCILROY’S FORMER AGENT CLAIMS GOLFER IS TOO BUSY BEING A ‘MOUTHPIECE’ FOR THE PGA TOUR

McIlroy shot 5-under on the back nine during his Wednesday practice round, which turned out to do much more bad than good.

“I honestly thought I was going to have the best Masters I ever had,” McIlroy said while reflecting on his disappointing Masters during a private event on Tuesday.

Rory McIlroy got ahead of himself ahead of this years Masters. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Things went south in a hurry for McIlroy as he shot 5-over in the opening two rounds to miss the cut. He beat just 21 players in the field, five of whom were amateurs, in the first two rounds before his week was cut short.

McIlroy entered Masters week playing great golf with a T-2 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a third-place in the WGC Match Play event just two weeks prior. It was no secret that his game was in a great spot, in fact, it may have been too good.

“It sucked,” McIlroy explained. “I shouldn’t be thinking about if I’m going to be having a good week or a bad week. I should only be thinking about that first tee shot on Thursday. That’s getting ahead of myself and feeling really good about my game but having those thoughts of, jeez, I’m going to have the best week I’ve ever had at Augusta isn’t the right mindset going into it."

"You need to be thinking about staying in the present. I feel like at Augusta I didn’t do a good job of that because of how well I was playing. I was almost too – not overconfident – but maybe got ahead of myself.”

Rory McIlroy Needed A Break, No Matter What It Cost

After his not-so-stellar week in Augusta, McIlroy surprisingly decided to skip the RBC Heritage marking the second time he's passed on playing in a designated event. Skipping the tournament will likely result in him losing $3 million as players are only allowed to miss one designated event per season.

Rory McIlroy was worn down after the Masters and the many months of battling with LIV Golf. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

McIlroy admitted that he desperately needed a reset not only because of his poor showing at the Masters, but after the last 12+ months of him being the unofficial spokesperson of the PGA Tour through the emergence of LIV Golf.

“I’ve always thought I had a good handle on the perspective of where golf fits within my life and trying to find purpose outside of golf in some way," McIlroy explained. "I think over the last 12 months I lost sight of that. I lost sight of the fact that, you know, there’s more to life than the golf world and this little silly squabble that’s going on between tours and all sorts of stuff."

"I think I just gained some perspective. Once I disconnected, I could see things a little clearer and where everything fits within my life. It was a good reset.”

McIlroy will make his first start since the nightmare at Augusta at this week's Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, a golf course he's won on three times previously in his career.

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