Rory McIlroy opened his 2025 Masters title defense at Augusta National on Thursday morning with a 332-yard drive, the first shot of his round as the new champion walked back into the tournament that has defined so much of his career. He wasted no time looking like a player willing to attack.
McIlroy, who won the Masters last week, sent one at the 2nd hole 377 yards well over the big fairway bunker and into the pine straw beyond it, then followed at the 8th with a 361-yard blast into the second cut at the foot of the hill. Earlier in the week, he had said he had picked out one or two spots around the course where he felt he could be a little more aggressive off the tee, and Thursday offered the first evidence of that plan.
His own view of Augusta has changed in a way that matters. McIlroy said that if he was going to hit five wood or three wood into the trees anyway, he might as well hit driver and get it close to the green. That is a cleaner, braver calculation than the one that has too often trapped him at this course. Over 17 years coming to Augusta National, he has played it in many different ways, and not always with the kind of freedom that suits him.
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Jack Nicklaus offered the historical marker that frames the day. The six-time Masters champion, who won in consecutive years in 1965 and 1966, hit the honorary tee shot on Thursday morning at 10.30am and said the key was to win two years in a row. He added that he thought McIlroy was the only one who had a chance to do it this year, called him talented enough and said that now he had the monkey off his back, he had a very, very good chance to repeat.
The contrast with McIlroy’s old Augusta caution was plain. He once described it as watching a man try to carry a Ming vase across a wet marble floor, a picture of a player so careful he could barely move. Phil Mickelson had told him back in 2011 that the reason he loved playing Augusta was that he felt he could be so aggressive there. McIlroy remembered thinking, “I feel the opposite,” and added that he felt he could not be aggressive here because there were so many bad places to miss.
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That tension showed up again on the 7th, where McIlroy found a fairway, but it was the fairway of the neighbouring 17th. From there he popped his second shot between the trees and down on to the bank to the far side of the 7th green, a reminder that at Augusta even bold choices can leave a player threading through trouble. The difference this week is that McIlroy no longer looks like he is trying to protect something. He looks like he is trying to win it again.
