One of Rory McIlroy’s fellow competitors at The Masters is hitting back at the idea the back-to-back champion gained an unfair advantage by playing more at Augusta National.
A day after McIlroy clinched his second green jacket, ESPN’s ‘First Take’ crew debated whether or not the golfer gained an advantage by playing Augusta National multiple times in recent weeks rather than playing dates on the PGA Tour.
Host and executive producer Stephen A. Smith openly questioned the fairness behind McIlroy’s move.
‘Now here’s where the twist becomes very, very interesting. I don’t know if anybody brought this up, I saw a tweet… there was a reporter there, somebody that quoted Rory admitting he had a quote-unquote “unfair advantage,”‘ Smith said on the show.
‘He says here “this place feels like my home course, I haven’t played anywhere else in the last two or three weeks.”
‘I’m like wait a minute now, were you over there practicing for two, three weeks getting set for The Masters when nobody else got to do that? I don’t know how anybody else feels about it.
Rory McIlroy admitted to playing Augusta National for many weeks before winning The Masters
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith wondered if McIlroy had an unfair advantage over the field
But fellow PGA golfer Michael Kim believes that McIlroy didn’t do anything wrong
‘He didn’t break any rules, he didn’t violate anything, I’m not saying that, please don’t get me wrong.’
‘But what I am saying is, that does give you an advantage – not only familiarity with the course because you’ve been playing there for years, but you’ve been there over the past three weeks. That’s what he said.
‘And saying that, I mean you have some people that would believe from a gentleman’s perspective, that was an unfair advantage.’
In response to this, McIlroy’s fellow PGA Tour member Michael Kim tossed cold water on the idea that the now two-time Masters winner had an advantage.
‘Yes, there’s a number of rounds that ANGC will say no to for me to go by myself and play by myself. That number is prob a little lower for me than a guy like Rory,’ Kim explained on X.
‘If you find a member to host you every time, there’s no limit. I had plenty of chances to go to ANGC myself if I wanted to but didn’t go. Better use of my time practicing at home or wherever I am to get my game in better shape for my next tournament. Course knowledge only gets you so far.
‘Plenty of golfers have even more experience at Augusta than Rory like Justin Rose.’
He added in the replies, ‘It is not unfair or an advantage people. It’s irrelevant to the result is my point. I guess my writing need [sic] to get better… If I wanted to match the number of the rounds at Augusta that Rory got, I easily could have done that.’
