AUGUSTA, Ga. – Over lunch last week in South Florida, Rory McIlroy presented his latest strategy for playing Augusta National to the greatest player in Masters history. Jack Nicklaus momentarily sat silent after McIlroy completed his account. Then Nicklaus gave it his blessing.

“We went through it shot for shot," Nicklaus, the six-time Masters champion, said Thursday morning as he recounted their meal. "And he got done with the round, and I didn't open my mouth. And I said, well, I wouldn't change a thing. That's exactly the way I would try to play the golf course.”

With an approach approved by the Masters’ most successful competitor and inspired by Augusta National’s most recent conqueror, as well as an unprecedented level of success entering this year’s tournament, all things pointed to McIlroy finally achieving a feat that he’s been chasing for more than a decade.

McIlroy already has won twice in 2025, picking up prestigious titles at both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and THE PLAYERS. This is the first year that he’s won twice on TOUR before the Masters. He credits the success in part to more conservative course management that’s similar to the strategy of Scottie Scheffler, who’s won two of the past three Masters.

McIlroy has all the physical tools to win the Masters, the most important tournament remaining for him to conquer. For the past 10 years, he has come to Augusta National needing only the green jacket to complete the career Grand Slam. Predictions of his success in this event have been occurring even longer, ever since he first drove up Magnolia Lane as a 19-year-old in 2009. His high, soaring ball flight, incredible length and propensity to draw the ball all contributed to those favorable assessments of his chances at Augusta National.

But McIlroy has not been able to make good on those predictions. Nicklaus pinpointed one reason Thursday.

“The discipline is what Rory has lacked in my opinion,” said Nicklaus. “He's got all the shots. He's got all the game. He certainly is as talented as anybody in the game. But if you look, go back and see his history the last few years, … a lot of times an 8 or a 7 pops up, and that keeps you from getting to where he needs to go.”

McIlroy is on a continual quest for self-improvement, as evidenced by his propensity to read self-help and pop psychology books. That discipline was supposed to be the difference between this latest iteration of McIlroy and previous versions. He said earlier this year that he admired Scheffler’s discipline and wanted to emulate it in his own game, curbing the “impulses” that he has on the course.

McIlroy was picking more conservative targets and aiming away from tucked flags, improved his short game to avoid bogeys and even switched to a softer ball that spins more to improve his control with his scoring clubs.

Unfortunately, Nicklaus’ Thursday morning analysis proved prescient. Even though there were myriad reasons to believe that the big numbers that have marred McIlroy’s previous Masters scorecards would not appear this year, they came at the worst possible time Thursday, when McIlroy was only a few holes away from his best Masters start in years. McIlroy made two double-bogeys over his final four holes to turn a promising start into a pedestrian 72.

For the first 14 holes of the Masters’ first round, it was all combining into a beautiful display of golf, the type where McIlroy makes the game look effortless with his languid swing. He was 4-under par, bogey-free and behind only one player on the leaderboard. But then it happened, the sort of big number that Nicklaus had described as McIlroy’s common downfall, especially at Augusta National.

The 15th green was one of four putting surfaces that were replaced between last year’s Masters and this year’s 89th edition. Young greens are always firmer than their older counterparts, and that was seen on the 15th hole.

McIlroy’s long-iron approach shot from 241 yards landed near the hole but took two big bounces and bounded past the putting surface. McIlroy was left with one of the most treacherous shots on the property, the pitch shot from behind the 15th green, which slopes steeply toward the water. McIlroy’s shot raced past the hole, down the bank of short grass and into the penalty area. It all added up to a 7 after a penalty stroke, wedge shot and two putts.

Unfortunately, the trouble didn’t end there. Two holes later, another approach bounced over the green and led to a double bogey. A three-putt from 30 feet dropped McIlroy back to even par. He had to get up-and-down from short of the 18th green to avoid shooting over par.

McIlroy’s chances of winning the Masters are not over, but the path has become much more difficult. McIlroy would have been in second place if he could have played Augusta National’s final four holes in even par. Instead, he will enter Friday’s second round seven shots behind leader Justin Rose. McIlroy did not speak to the media after Thursday’s round.

The scorecard had to speak for itself.