Lessons in failure

The pictures of Rory McIlroy from the final round of the 2011 Masters say it all.

There was the shot of him doubled over his putter with his hands clenched around the bill of his cap. There was the one of him burying his head in a white towel, shielding himself from what was unfolding. And then there was the one of him standing over his ball so far away from Augusta National’s 10th fairway that he was only inches away from a white house that borders the hole.

They stand as lasting images of a collapse, one in which McIlroy finished 10 shots off the lead after entering the final round with a four-stroke advantage.

It was a day that could have simultaneously defined and undone the then-21-year-old’s promising career. Just two months later, however, he returned to an equally big stage and won resoundingly.

McIlroy’s eight-stroke win at the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club wasn’t only a reassurance that one of golf’s brightest young stars wouldn’t unravel in the face of a high-profile setback; it was also a sign that he was among the sport’s best and most resilient competitors, while also providing a hopeful anecdote to golfers trying to rebound from their own turmoil.

It’s a roughly 70-day span that, as McIlroy looks back now, helped shape his career as he heads into this year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont this week.

“I think I learned a lot about myself in terms of how I handled the situation, how I handled the pressure,” McIlroy said. “I didn’t focus on myself enough. I focused on what was going on around me. The one thing I learned was I can only control what I’m doing. I can’t control what anyone else is doing. And as long as I’m in control of that, I feel if I play well enough, I’ll win.”

Prior to his stumble at the Masters, there was little reason to think McIlroy would falter so egregiously. He was one of golf’s rising stars, a Northern Irish wunderkind who seen as an heir to a throne that had temporarily — and now, seemingly, permanently — been abdicated by Tiger Woods.

McIlroy’s 54-hole lead at the Masters seemed to validate that belief. But after staying atop the leaderboard with nine holes to go, everything quickly frayed. He triple-bogeyed No. 10 before four-putting for a double-bogey on No. 12. His game stabilized from there, but by that point, it was too late. He shot an 80 for his final round, plummeting him from first into a five-way tie for 15th.

It was the kind of moment that seemed like a nightmare, only it was all too real. Most of all, it cast a shadow of doubt over McIlroy’s future and whether a young golfer would be able to recover from such a debilitating setback in a game that’s more mental than physical.

For McIlroy, that meant looking inward. As mistakes started to arise on the back nine at Augusta, and even before that, he began concentrating on Angel Cabrera, the other member of his pairing, and Charl Schwartzel, the eventual tournament champion, as their scores crept closer to his. That, McIlroy said, festered inside his head as he tried to work through his own struggles.

“When I got myself in that position again, I just needed to focus on myself and focus on my little swing thoughts or things I thought were important and not care about anyone else in the field,” McIlroy said.

The problem wasn’t getting back to that position — holding a late lead in a major tournament — but maintaining it. The lesson he learned from the Masters was applied once he raced out to an eight-stroke lead after three rounds at the U.S. Open.

This time, McIlroy wouldn’t falter, finishing 16-under to win his first major and setting a tournament record with his score.

Since that victory, the potential so many saw in McIlroy has materialized, as the 27-year-old has won three more majors and is ranked third in the world. What he has accomplished since the final round of the Masters five years ago has piqued some interest recently as the player one spot ahead of him in the rankings, Jordan Spieth, finds himself in a similar plight.

Spieth, a 22-year-old phenom with two majors to his name, including last year’s U.S. Open, had a five-shot lead going into the back nine of the final round of the Masters this year. He bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 before posting a disastrous quadruple-bogey on No. 12 and lost the tournament by three strokes.

“It will continue to be mentioned, maybe until we have a chance to win the Masters again,” Spieth said. “Something like that will always stick around, unfortunately.”

Unlike McIlroy, Spieth will enter the U.S. Open with a victory following his Masters shortcoming, having won the Dean & Deluca Invitational in late May, a win he said helped somewhat alleviate his disappointment.

Even without that victory, there’s solace to be found in golf’s history, which is littered with greats who overcame profound professional setbacks.

At his annual tournament, The Memorial, in early June, Jack Nicklaus spoke at length about some of the most pronounced shortcomings from early in his career, such as losing the 1960 U.S. Open after leading with six holes to go and giving away a late two-stroke lead three years later at the British Open.

Painful as those experiences were, they served a purpose for Nicklaus, just as similar moments did for McIlroy, who said last year his final round at the 2011 Masters was the most important day of his career.

In golf, as it is in other sports, triumph cannot come without failure.

“I think, if I’d won some of those tournaments, I think I’d have been scratching my ears out here like this [mimicking as if he had an abnormally large head], and it probably would have been the worst thing that ever happened to me,” the 18-time major champion said. “It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. So what happened to Jordan at Augusta, he’ll learn from that. And it will be one of the best things that ever happened to him.”

Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG