Rory McIlroy came undone in opening round of Masters despite Jack Nicklaus warning

AUGUSTA, Ga.— Rory McIlroy was right where he needed to be.In pursuit of his first Masters green jacket and a career Grand Slam, McIlroy was in a good position during Thursday’s opening round at Augusta National.

He was 4-under par through 14 holes with a chance to move further up the leaderboard.And then it all came crashing down on him.McIlroy went from 4-under to even par, seven shots behind leader Justin Rose, with two double bogeys on the final four holes.None of the past 42 Masters champions have had more than one double bogey in the entire tournament, and McIlroy carded two in a span of three holes — on Nos.15 and 17.Fifteen was where it began to unravel.

McIlroy sent what looked like a decent chip over the water guarding the front of the green, but the ball rolled off the back of the green into the water.That led to the first double.When his round was over, McIlroy, clearly rattled, declined interview requests.Interestingly, on Tuesday he spoke to reporters about the growing trend of players refusing to speak to the media, saying, “Every other athlete, whether it be in the NBA, NFL, they’re obligated to speak to you guys after a game.

We’re not.“Whether that’s something that the PGA Tour looks to in terms of putting that into their rules and regulations … but as long as that’s not the case and we have that option to opt out whenever we want, expect guys to do that from time to time.’’Jack Nicklaus, the six-time Masters winner who’s close with McIlroy, revealed Thursday that the two had lunch last week in Florida and talked about strategy around Augusta National, where McIlroy has had a tendency to play too aggressively.“I think it’s about time that Rory won [a Masters],’’ Nicklaus said.“I sat down with Rory last week and we had lunch, and we were talking, and I said, ‘Rory, I know you prepared for Augusta; tell me how you’re going to play the golf course.’“We went through it shot for shot.

And [when] he got don...