One of the most bizarre narratives in the history of professional sport emerged after Rory McIlroy won The Masters for the second consecutive time in April.
McIlroy has already firmly established himself as one of the greatest players of all time, and at the age of 37, he’s far from finished.
The Northern Irishman became only the sixth man in the history of the game to complete the career Grand Slam after winning The Masters in 2025.
And then Rory McIlroy successfully defended his title at Augusta National last month, becoming only the fourth golfer in Masters history to do so.
However, McIlroy received criticism after his Masters win for playing too many practice rounds at Augusta National!
Quite where that line of opinion began is anybody’s guess, but surely we can all agree now that it was a truly ridiculous narrative, can’t we?
Rory McIlroy responds to criticism about his Augusta National practice rounds
McIlroy openly admitted after winning his second green jacket that the reason why he chose not to play in any of the three events leading up to The Masters was so that he could prepare properly at Augusta National.
During an appearance on the New Heights Podcast, McIlroy responded when asked what he made of the criticism aimed at him for playing too many practice rounds at Augusta National ahead of The Masters.
“Actually, my last couple of events before the Masters in Florida, I tweaked my back a little bit, so I had to pull out of the event in Orlando,“ McIlroy started off by saying.
“And then I probably played, I don’t know, probably 75% capacity at The Players.
“So I took three weeks off leading into Augusta, I think, more to get my body right.
“And then it gave me the opportunity to go up to Augusta and prepare maybe more than anyone else in the field, which actually got a little bit of s––t for afterwards, which was really weird.
“How about that?”
Criticism of Rory McIlroy was beyond farcical
The criticism that McIlroy received for playing too many practice rounds at Augusta National ahead of The Masters was quite frankly ridiculous.
How can an elite-level sportsman be criticized for ‘over-preparing’? It’s beyond farcical.
Also, do those who were criticizing McIlroy truly believe that the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Phil Mickelson didn’t do the same during their prime years?
Rory McIlroy prepared as well as he could for the defence of his Masters title.
And like Michael Kim said at the time, every single player in the field at Augusta National had the opportunity to play multiple practice rounds during the weeks leading up to The Masters.
The criticisms of Rory McIlroy were truly ridiculous to begin with and, thankfully, the majority of golf fans are on board with that notion.