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Guy Heveldt: McIlroy magic overshadows unsung hero of Masters mental resilience
Guy Heveldt • April 15th, 2025 12:30 pm
Photo: Photosport
What we witnessed on Monday morning was five-to-six hours of some of the greatest sporting theatre ever produced.
We went on a rollercoaster akin to that of the 2019 Cricket World Cup final. A sporting drama that frayed our nerves to the extreme. I can only imagine what it would’ve been like for the man who can finally call himself the Masters Champion.
Rory McIlroy had been in the exact same situation 14 years earlier. Holding a multiple shot lead on the 10th tee of the final round at Augusta, only to completely crumble in one of golf’s most monumental meltdowns.
He won the 2014 PGA Championship, but since then went 11 years without a major victory, a span which included 21 top-10 finishes and four runner-up results.
It genuinely seemed like he would never win one again.
And even during the wild ride of Monday's final round, he opened with a double bogey, produced arguably the worst shot of his career at 13 to result in another double bogey, followed that up with a dropped shot on 14 to suddenly fall out of the lead.
It felt like the Golfing Gods, the Masters Gods, whatever deity there is up there, just would not let the Northern Irishman claim the prize he so desperately coveted.
Rory McIlroy | Photo: Matthew Harris/Golf Picture Agency
No Masters champion had ever had four double bogeys in the tournament on their way to winning. So, he not only had his own history to overcome, but 88 years of tournament history as well.
And I haven’t even mentioned the ultimate result – becoming just the sixth person in history and only the second, after Tiger Woods since the 1960s, to complete the career Grand Slam.
It was an athlete conquering the biggest test of his mental game, a round that could’ve completely killed any confidence he ever had of finally scaling his Everest. And he overcame it. What he showed in terms of his mental strength, I truly will never be able to comprehend.
But there was another display of mental toughness that will be completely forgotten and may never be spoken about again during this edition of the Masters. It probably doesn’t match what McIlroy had to face, but it possibly resonates more with the Average Joe, like myself and many of you.
In the first round of the 89th Masters, an American by the name of Nick Dunlap had a day even a 5-10 handicapper would want to forget.
If you aren’t aware, the world No. 42 – yes the 42nd best golfer in the entire world (according to the Official World Golf Rankings) fired an opening round 18-over par 90. It was 18 holes that included seven bogeys, four double bogeys and a triple bogey.
He left the course broken, as you would.
For anyone who’s played golf, at any level, you know as well as I do how incredibly mentally taxing the sport can be. If you are hacking your way around the golf course, the only place you want to be is anywhere but those greens and fairways.
Photo: PGA Golf
You go to the well of negative extremes – selling your clubs, giving up your membership, never playing the game again - a line I have muttered countless times in my very moderate golf career.
Even if you don’t play golf, you would no doubt have had those kinds of days in another sport - at work, in life in general where you would rather do anything other than that thing that’s put you in such a dire mental state. How many of you have had such a rubbish day at work one day, you haven’t shown up the next? I dare say there’d be plenty.
What he would’ve been going through resonates in so many walks of life.
But did he shy away from showing up for round two? Did Nick Dunlap make up an injury, or overplay something so that he could withdraw from just his second ever Masters?
He most definitely did not.
In fact, he not only showed up for round two, he produced a one-under par round of 71. Nineteen shots better than the car crash nightmare that will go down as one of the worst in the history of the Masters.
Not only that, he fronted the media afterwards and spilled his soul to those wanting to pierce his mind and find out just what on earth was going on in there for the previous 24 hours or so. He was emotive, he was honest and he was compelling.
He didn’t win the tournament, far from it. In fact he probably tried to book a flight out of Augusta about nine holes into that first round.
But in a world where mental health and strength is spoken about and tested possibly more than ever, he showed an amount of which I’m not sure any of us can truly appreciate. We can resonate with how frustrating the sport side of things can be, but to a much, much lower level and in front of one or two eyes, compared to hundreds of millions watching around the world.
He didn’t win a green jacket, but Nick Dunlap showed about the same level of mental strength just to finish 18-over par as the guy who finished 29 shots better and will be deciding the menu for the 2026 Masters Champions Dinner.
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