The ink had long since dried on Mason Howell’s first Masters story when he witnessed his idol, Rory McIlroy, send a lightning bolt through Augusta National.
Sitting a 9-over with a little more than one hole to play in his second round, Howell stood on the side of the 17th green and waited for McIlroy to play his pitch shot to the back left pin location. McIlroy, then leading by four, pitched his ball halfway to the hole and watched destiny take it the rest of the way. As the ball rolled into the bottom of the cup, McIlroy raised his wedge to salute a crowd that was going ballistic as the defending champion went on a finishing flurry to take a six-shot lead into the weekend.
There was Howell, the U.S. Amateur champion, with only one hole left in his tournament, trying to stay in his process but smiling at what he had a front-row seat to at Augusta National.
“You’ve got to stay in your own lane, but it’s hard not to watch that,” Howell said after missing the cut. “That chip-in on 17 was unreal. That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in sports, and I got to witness it in person, so that was awesome.”
Howell’s tournament started with him showing McIlroy a golf ball the defending champion had tossed to Howell at the 2016 Tour Championship, when Howell was nine. As Howell teed his opening tee shot up at Augusta National, the 18-year-old said he “couldn’t feel his arms,” so he tried to swing as hard as he could to make sure the ball got out there. As Howell made contact, his Ping hat flew off his head, and the ball sailed left into the ninth fairway. Howell and McIlroy shared a laugh as they exited the tee box, and the high school senior’s first Masters experience began with a scrappy par and a walk alongside his golf hero.
Howell shot an opening-round 5-over 77 and backed it up with a 76 on Friday to miss the cut by five. Howell’s best moment came on Friday at the par-3 12th hole when he stuck his tee shot to a foot for birdie. One day earlier, Howell hit his tee shot into the back bunker and made a double bogey. He soaked up all the Augusta lessons he could but it wouldn’t be enough.
That birdie moved Howell to within four shots of the cut line, but a bogey at the par-5 13th ended his hopes of a weekend tee time at Augusta. That’s OK, though, because by the time Howell’s Masters fate was clear, McIlroy was starting a seven-hole stretch where he made six birdies to go from tied for the lead to six clear. Watching the player he grew up idolizing tear apart Augusta National is something that will forever be burned in Howell’s memory. His score is irrelevant.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better two days,” Howell said. “Obviously, I wish I played a little bit better, but playing alongside Rory and Cam [Young] and kind of seeing the show that they put on, that’s something I’ll remember forever and something I can go home and learn off of and just push myself to work even harder.”
When Howell made the semifinals at last year’s U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club, he knew that two wins along Lake Merced in San Francisco meant an April tee time with the defending Masters champion, McIlroy. Howell beat Eric Lee 3 and 2 in the semis and then rolled Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 to set up a once-in-a-lifetime tee time.
That 36-hole walk with McIlroy ended on Friday night when McIlroy poured in a final birdie and then gave Howell some words of encouragement as he prepares for the next stage of his golf journey at the University of Georgia and, eventually, the professional ranks.
“Rory was awesome,” Howell said. “He said, ‘I hope to see you down the line. We’ll play some practice rounds coming up.’ So, I couldn’t have been more thankful to be paired with Rory this week, and how much I learned from his game.
“I mean, that was such a special moment for me to play with my idol. I mean, yeah, other than making the cut for me, that was everything I dreamed it would be.”
McIlroy built the largest-ever 36-hole lead at the Masters with Howell walking with him. For fifty-two weeks, we wondered what McIlroy’s Masters liberation would look like after he finally exorcised his demons last April. To us, it looked like rounds of 67 and 65 while ranking 90th out of 91 in driving accuracy. McIlroy called it a “flow state,” and knows there’s still a long way to go.
But from what Howell saw, the next two days are likely to be a coronation for a Rory McIlroy that is finally getting Augusta National to love him back.
“Now he has all the weight off his shoulders,” Howell said. “He’s playing so carefree, and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t get it done this weekend.”
