Rory McIlroy Shows Class Despite His Meltdown

There are only a few words to describe Rory's McIlroy's final round at Augusta National. It was a collapse. It was a meltdown. He was 7 over par on the back 9 including a triple bogey on 10, a bogey on 11, and a double bogey on 12. McIlroy's final round 80 was the worst of a third round leader at the Masters since Ken Venturi in 1956. The four stroke lead that McIlroy squandered was the biggest of a third round leader at a major since Jean Van de Velde lead by 5 strokes at the 1999 Open Championship. Many people have compared McIlroy's meltdown to Greg Norman when he entered the Masters with a six stroke lead in 1996 but lost by five strokes to Nick Faldo. Since McIlroy turned professional in 2007, he only had one round where he didn't break 80 before his 80 at the Masters on Sunday. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Rory, did go wrong. He went from a comfortable four stroke lead after 54 holes at 12 under to a tied for 15th finish at 4 under. He went from a check of 1,440,000 to a check of 128,000. Although McIlroy's collapse may be remembered more than even Charl Schwartzel's victory, the 21 year old handled himself with outstanding class and maturity amidst the circumstances.

McIlroy didn't dodge any of his post match interview requests. He pulled himself together after his miserable round and handled the loss extremely graciously. McIlroy said after his round, “I thought I hung in pretty well in the front nine, I was leading the tournament going into the back nine. Just hit a poor tee shot on 10 and sort of unraveled from there. Just sort of lost it 10, 11, 12, and couldn’t really get it back. It’s one of those things, I’m very disappointed at the minute and I’m sure I will be for the next few days, but I’ll get over it. I have to take the positives and the positives are I led this golf tournament for 63 holes. I’ll have plenty more chances, I know that. It’s very disappointing what happened today and hopefully it will build a little bit of character in me as well... It was a character-building day. Put it that way." McIlroy definitely showed character and was very candid in defeat. On his twitter page he said, "Found it tough going today, but you have to lose before you can win. This day will make me stronger in the end.... Thank you to everyone for all your kind words and messages of support. I'm a little overwhelmed! Very much appreciated!... Oh and congratulations charl schwartzel!! Great player and even better guy! Very happy for him and his family."

McIlroy received support from his fans and also other players who were impressed by the 21 year old's attitude. Luke Donald said, “It’s tough – my heart goes out to Rory. He’ll bounce back, I’m sure. He’s just got to take the learning experience from this.” Phil Mickelson said, "Rory is one of the nicest guys you can imagine. He's one of the classiest guys out on tour... Rory is as classy a guy as there is. I've been paired with him a bunch, and I really enjoy playing with him." Even Cleveland Brown's quarterback Colt McCoy wrote on his twitter, "Felt terrible for Rory."

However, McIlroy is definitely not the first to blow a lead at a major by having a horrible final round. At the 2010 U.S. Open, Dustin Johnson was -6 and had a three stroke lead at the top of the leaderboard after three rounds. He finished tied for 8th place after shooting an 82 on the final day. At the 2010 PGA Championship, Nick Watney had a three stroke lead going into the final round at 13 under par and ended up finishing tied for 18th place after a fourth round 81. McIlroy, who has finished in third place in three of the last six majors was confident that he has a lot more time to win a major saying, “You know, I’ll have plenty more chances. I know that."