Nine years ago, Graeme McDowell reflected on Rory McIlroy’s Masters meltdown and boldly predicted the Holywood star would finish his career with a wardrobe full of green jackets.

“I said at the start of Masters week that Augusta is absolutely tailor-made for him and I stand by that,” McDowell said a few days after McIlroy blew a four-shot lead in the final round in 2011 and shot 80 to finish tied 15th, ten shots behind Charl Schwartzel.

“He will not just win one Masters, he will win multiple Masters. I will say that right now.”

It took McIlroy just 10 weeks to win his first Major title, romping to a record-setting eight-shot win in his next Major start in the US Open at Congressional.

But while he’s since added another three Majors to his tally, he remains winless in the event he needs to complete the career grand slam and become one of the immortals of the game alongside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

McDowell (41) returns to Augusta National for the first time in four years next week looking to forgot all about his love-hate relationship without an event where he tied for 12th in 2012 but also missed the cut six times out of nine.

He’s heading into the unknown once more, and when it comes to McIlroy (31), he concedes that the world No 5, who became a father for the first time in September, is an unknown quantity too.

“If you told me 10 years ago, we’d be sitting here, and Rory’s won four major championships and Augusta wasn’t one of them, I’d be like, ‘I don’t believe it’,” McDowell said.

“Because if there’s one major championship set up for him, it’s Augusta. We don’t know how much pressure he’s putting on himself. It would be a momentous achievement to win all four, we’d love to see him getting it down next week. It would be very exciting for Irish golf, and I think he’s more than capable of it. 

“But we don’t know what’s inside the head and how much pressure he’s putting on himself. He’s a smart kid. Obviously, personal life, I’m sure he’s very happy at home. Getting into space in his life where you’re starting to settle down as person and man. He could easily get the job done next week.”

The first autumn Masters will be played without patrons and while there will be no rope lines, no galleries and no roars echoing through the pines on the back nine on Sunday, McDowell still expects it to be a special experience for TV fans.

“It’s interesting. It is going to look very different. Augusta being who they are, I’m sure they’ll do their best to try and make the TV experience as great as it can possibly be. They do a fantastic job with it. 

“It’s going to be quiet out there. On Sunday afternoon, Augusta has a certain sound to it. You know when you’re watching the coverage, and you hear a bomb going off, you pretty much know that’s an eagle on 13 or a big putt on 15 or maybe a hole-in-one on 16. 

“Not having those sounds is going to be very different for the viewer. 

“I’m sure the golf course is going to look very different on TV. Will it play a bit longer, just with the temperatures being a little colder? The overseed requires a lot of water and typically can be quite soft. 

“We’ll see. I’m not really sure. I’m sure the golf course will look good on TV, and the greens will play like we’re used to seeing but it is going to look different out there without that definition of people and some of those little amphitheatres around the greens. 

“For the viewer, I think they’re going to get some unique looks at Augusta they’ve never seen before, which will be cool as well. 

“There’s no point trying to ice it – it’s going to be different without the people out there.”
The bookies have installed big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau as the 15/2 favourite with McIlroy and Jon Rahm 11/1 and McDowell a whopping 300/1 with some oddsmakers. 

“I might have a fiver each-way myself there,” McDowell joked. “300/1? Jaysus. I need to go out and practice! Listen, certainly not a course where my record shows very well. Feel like I’m a different guy going in there next week—little bit of boyish excitement. Feel like I drive it better than I did. Feel like I’m a better player than I was when there last time. Going in there with a new set of eyes, viewing it as a great opportunity. Feel like I’m decent value at 300/1.”

As one of the shorter hitters, McDowell has struggled to compete in the Masters because there is enormous pressure on his iron play and putting.  

“I feel like I’m standing there with seven iron and my margin of error is so much tighter. I put so much more pressure on myself at Augusta,” he said. “If I don’t hit my spot with the right flight, the ball is going to get away, and I’ll make bogey or worse. When I play a regular tournament, I feel comfortable going into greens. Going in next week, one of the big things I’m going to focus on is knowing where I’m going to miss my irons so I can be on the fairway and loosen up, and attack these flags. 

“Being more aggressive with my iron is what I’m going in next week as a strategy, and taking on the course a little bit more. That’s one of my strengths. When I go there, I get tentative with my irons for some reason.”

He added: “Like I say, I do love the golf course and I’m starting the putt the ball probably the best I have this year so going in there with a hot putter next week is something I’m looking forward to. I’ve always been a little frustrated with Augusta because I’ve never really putted the best I can putt so going in there with a fresh head and fresh set of eyes and a little bit of a sort of appreciative attitude is hopefully going to stand me in good stead.

“I’m just looking forward to being out there on that golf course next week. It should be really cool, you know, I feel like I’m 25 again going back into my first Masters. It really is like it’s been that long that I’m excited. It’ll be like Christmas Day when I get out onto the golf course, and I just appreciate the opportunity.”
With all due respect to McDowell, all eyes with be on big-hitting DeChambeau following his six-shot win in the US Open and Jack Nicklaus’s belief that he could drive the 445-yard first at Augusta and reduce the par-fives to a drive and a flick.

“I haven’t seen him in person hit a golf ball except on television at the US Open, and of course at the Memorial tournament,” Nicklaus told Golf.com. “He hit in some places I couldn’t believe. He was 27 yards from the first green at the Memorial tournament. I mean — come on. That hole is 470, something like that. If he could do that, he can drive the 1st green.

“And at 15 at Augusta, he’s got a wide fairway because he’ll hit it past the trees on the left. He’ll need a little pitching wedge into the 15th.”    

McDowell isn’t ruling out anyone from the world’s top 20, but he has no huge problem with the bombers in the game, believing they antics of DeChambeau, McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka will attract more eyeballs to the game as the governing bodies appear certain to take another few years to rein them in with new equipment rules.

“My game is built for being in the fairway and great iron play, great wedge play and great putting so it’s important for me,” he said. “I mean, I’m not like a Bryson or a Phil or some of these guys, they want to move it as far as humanly possible, and they don’t care if they miss the fairway. I need to be in the fairway, and that’s just how my game’s built.

“The way Bryson played Winged Foot, my game’s not built like that because I’m not as good from the rough as he is. 

“The shot he hit in the last round, the fourth hole, he missed in the left rough and that pin was in the front right, a great little wedge in there to about 20 feet, just great control.

“So I’m aware there’s a power shift going on one the golf course at a high level right now, and it’s interesting, it’s exciting to see what these guys can do. Is there an inevitability of equipment going back? I think there is, speaking to people that know people at a high level in the USGA and R&A, it feels like there is an inevitability at some point, but that probably won’t be for a couple of years. 

“So in the meantime, it’s going to be very interesting to see how far these guys can actually hit the ball, and if Bryson goes and wins next week at Augusta it will certainly be hugely, hugely interesting and I think quite healthy for the sport in a weird way. 

“There’s definitely two schools of thought right now where this is not okay, and these guys are making a mockery of the best courses in the world, and something has to be done, and there’s the flip side of the coin, where it’s very exciting. 

“People are talking about golf. It’s a hot subject. Very interesting. Golf has coped very well through the pandemic. It’s a safe and healthy sport. I know Ireland is shut down, the UK. But golf is a reasonably safe pastime. It’s very exciting for the sport right now. There will be a lot of people watching Augusta next week very interested to see what these guys can do.”