With Rory McIlroy Off To Another Strong Start At A Major, He Will Try To Avoid Another Collapse

In the first round of the British Open at St. Andrews last year, Rory McIlroy shot a 9-under par, 63. His performance was the lowest ever first round score in Open history and tied the St. Andrews course record for the lowest score. He followed his first round performance with a second round 80, the lowest score in the second round of any player to make the cut that year. Although there were bad weather conditions with a lot of wind, McIlroy's second round display was very disappointing especially after he jumped out to such a great start first round. McIlroy said about his second round, "It was just very, very difficult out there. I just let it get away from me a little bit. I could have let the round get away from me, if I'm quite honest." McIlroy finished 8 shots behind the winner Louis Oosthuizen.

At this year's Masters, Rory McIlroy once again jumped out to a great start at a major, as he was tied for the lead at the Masters after the first day with a 7-under par, 65. The 22 year old young star was looking to avoid another meltdown after the first round of a major. McIlroy said after his first round that he didn't expect another collapse at the Masters. He said looking back at his British Open, "At the time, it was very disappointing. But looking back, it was probably very valuable in my progression as a golfer... I have that experience to draw on especially being in a similar position to last year at St. Andrews... I'll be thinking about how I can do things better tomorrow than I did that day in St. Andrews... I feel like I'm better prepared to tee off in the second round of a major with the lead. It's possible that I can go out and shoot another 65, but I know that it's also very likely that I'm not going to do that. So if I do find myself in a bit of trouble, I'm going to have to stick in there, grind it out, and that's something that I feel as if I learned to do at St. Andrews." McIlroy shot a 69 in the second round and a 70 in the third round and had a four shot lead going into the final round of the Masters but he imploded in the fourth round and shot an 8-over par, 80. The four stroke lead that McIlroy squandered was the biggest of a third round leader at a major since Jean Van de Velde lead by 5 strokes at the 1999 Open Championship and lost to in a three-way playoff. His final round was the worst round in history by a golfer leading after the third round of the Masters. Many people compared McIlroy's meltdown to Greg Norman when he entered the Masters with a six stroke lead in 1996 but lost by five strokes to Nick Faldo. For the second time at a major, McIlroy collapsed.

McIlroy said after his final round collapse at the Masters, “You know, I’ll have plenty more chances. I know that." After his first round at Congressional County Club in Bethesda, Maryland, McIlroy has another great chance to walk away with his first win at a major. For the third major out of the last four, McIlroy is leading the pack after the first 18 holes. He birdied 6 holes, 3 on the front nine and 3 on the back nine, and didn't have one bogey on the day. He shot a 6-under par, 65 in the first round of the U.S. Open and leads Charl Schwartzel and Y.E. Yang by three strokes.

McIlroy's challenge for the next three rounds of the tournament will be to not have a repeat of his second round at the British Open or his final round at the Masters. McIlroy seems like he has put his Masters collapse behind him, as he said about his bounce back from that tournament, "I don't know if it says that I've just got a very short memory or, I don't know. I took the experience from Augusta, and I learned a lot from it. But I feel like these good starts in the majors are very much down to my preparation and how I prepare for them. But yeah, I mean, you can't, you're going into the U.S. Open. You can't be thinking about what's happened before, you've got to just be thinking about this week and how best you can prepare and how you can get yourself around the golf course. I think you definitely have to analyze the parts that you want to do better. But I stopped, I really stopped thinking about it a week after. You really try and pick it apart and pick things out that you could have done better, but after you do that and you're happy with everything that you've sort of taken from it, then you've just got to move on. I just took, mostly just from the Sunday just being so tentative and trying to keep ahead of the field instead of playing a free-flowing game like I usually do. That's one of the big differences." 

McIlroy said, "I felt like I handled the second round at Augusta this year a lot better than I handled the second round at St. Andrews last year." McIlroy is hoping that he will handle the fourth round at Congressional a lot better than his fourth round at Augusta. McIlroy definitely has the tools and the ability to win a major but will he be able to move past his prior collapses and hand in four solid rounds at a major?