The Masters Tonight - Thursday: 15 years on, it is Deja vu for McIlroy, and for me

9 April, 2011.

The day I arrived in St Andrews, moving to Scotland from Devizes, in Wiltshire, England.

15 years have passed and my word have there been some ups and downs, highs and lows, ecstasy and agony along the way. “Unfortunately, on this occasion you have been unsuccessful in your application”.

It was something I had heard regularly between January 2009 and March 2011.

I was one of the near 27,000 people who lost their jobs when Woolworths failed to find a buyer after going into Administration.

Over 2 years of looking for a job, applying for work here, there and everywhere.

My University education prepared me for a job in the industries surrounding the sport of golf, and since leaving Myerscough College in 2006 I had interviews at Celtic Manor (the 2010 Ryder Cup host venue), the Grove (2006 World Golf Championship host venue), Bowood, near my home of Devizes in Wiltshire (former Challenge Tour venue), and at the Ladies Golf Union and Fairmont St Andrews at the home of golf.

I had also applied for roles at Wentworth, Woburn, St Mellion and several others, but with no success.

My previous experience within the industry was limited to Caddying for two seasons at the prestigious Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland, and a season as a golf retail assistant at Gleneagles.

By 2011 I had been unemployed for 2 years, and with seemingly no hope of a job in the area where my family lived, I decided to attempt to get a job at the home of golf, St Andrews. So, I attended a recruitment day for St Andrews Links in early February 2011. I did so with the intention of getting a job in one of the golf shops or in administration, but I ended up having a chat with the then Caddie Master, Robert Thorpe. I submitted my application, had a short telephone interview the following week, and based upon my experience from Royal County Down, was given the job as a caddie at St Andrews Links.

Elation! Relief.

It was over.

2 years of being unemployed.

And please, don’t think I just applied for golf jobs in those two years. I applied for over 100 jobs across all sectors of the economy, getting a few interviews but each time being unsuccessful. In the wake of the global financial crisis, and the UK Government Austerity policies, there were many people in the same boat, and dwindling numbers of life rafts.

I had a measly £72 per week to live on from Job Seekers Allowance, as it was called at the time. Plus, the indignity of having to ‘sign on’ every week at the Job Centre and get this rather puzzled and confused look when I mentioned what I was looking for and the skills I had. The Job Centre back then, as it probably still is, was fit for one thing, getting people into a dead-end, short-term, unsuitable job just to improve numbers. And unfortunately, when you have thousands of other people in that position the chances of success are limited.

Finally, I had hope. Finally, I could begin the have a meaningful life again. But more than that, I was becoming a caddie at the home of golf, and moving to St Andrews, moving to Scotland. As I previously mentioned, I had spent 3 months at Gleneagles in 2007, and as a family we visited St Andrews when Mum and Dad came up to see me during the summer. 11 years earlier we also visited St Andrews for the very first time when we were touring Scotland in a Renault 5 Campus and visiting my dad’s brother and his family, who at the time lived in Dundee.

Then in 2004 and 2006 I volunteered at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with fellow students at Myerscough College, which has the grand and appropriate title of the International Institute for Golf Education. So, I had visited St Andrews for various reasons on four separate occasions, and had an affinity with the town, area and obviously, golf. It was the perfect place to escape the shackles of unemployment and meet new people.

The weekend of April 9 and 10, 2011 will be one I will never forget, the weekend I moved to St Andrews and it was the weekend of Golf's First Major, The 75th Masters.

That weekend the weather was absolutely spectacular, nice and warm with brilliant sunshine and the journey up from my home town in Wiltshire, England to the East Coast of Fife was fantastic as I was starting a new chapter in my life and career. I was especially looking forward to moving in, unpacking and going to meet one of my best friends, his wife, father and uncle in town to watch the third round of The Masters and enjoy a few drinks in the best golfing scene you will find in any St Andrews bar.

The Dunvegan Hotel is just a 112-yard walk from the 18th green of the Old Course and is by far the best bar for watching golf in within St Andrews, it has an atmosphere unlike any other with many golfers having played during the day choosing to spend their evenings sat drinking, eating and watching the golf on the HD televisions.

The Hotel was acquired by Jack and Sheena Willoughby in 1994, both are avid golfers and as such the golfer is made more than welcome with staff getting to know the customer and more than willing and able to talk golf with you. Numerous celebrities and world golfing stars have frequented the bar over the years and to be in there both nights of Masters weekend truly was something very special, especially for the 2011 Masters weekend.

Over those 15 years Rory McIlroy has also had some ups and downs, highs and lows, ecstasy and agony in his iconic golfing career.

For McIlroy 9 April 2011 is the night he slept on a four-shot lead after the third round of the 2011 Masters Tournament.

The agony came on Sunday.

On that Saturday, and on Sunday, I went to the Dunvegan, one of St Andrews' iconic bars, on the corner of Golf Place, to watch the Masters with one of my close friends Stephen Sweeney. Stephen is now one of the top 100 golf teachers in the United States, forging his reputation through coaching of putting, and has worked with many top players, including Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry and Joaquin Niemann among others. Stephen is also from Letterkenny, in Donegal, Ireland, and is good friends with Rory McIlroy, and I can vividly recall the agony he went through as the 21-year-old McIlroy fell apart on the final day.

I first met Stephen Sweeney in 2004 when myself and two other students went to Newcastle, County Down to caddie for the summer at Royal County Down Golf Club. We rented a room from him for the period of time we were caddying and in 2006 I returned alone to spend June-October in the town and caddying. We had several great adventures and many memorable moments over the course of that summer and have remained close ever since.

Rory began the weekend at 10-under-par, two strokes clear of Jason Day at the top of the leaderboard and three clear of Tiger Woods, the 21-year-old was on the verge of fulfilling his immense early potential by claiming one of the biggest titles in sport.

Saturday is known as moving day and plenty of players attempted to challenge McIlroy's position at the top with Angel Cabrera and Adam Scott posting 67's to move up the leaderboard, but a steady 70 from the Northern Irishman including a critical and inspired downhill putt at the 17th gave him a four-stroke lead at the close of the third round.

On the face of it he held a commanding advantage, but even though he was four ahead of the rest only four strokes covered the next sixteen players on the leaderboard, and four players were tied for second. Any slip from McIlroy and there were many quality golfers ready to pounce. Were we set for the crowning of golf's new king? Would a star come roaring through to upset the Ulsterman? Either way we were set for another exciting conclusion to Golf's First Major, but nobody at that stage knew just how exciting.

Masters Sunday began for myself with going to the local Morrison’s store to buy some food and essentials on my first morning as a St Andrews resident, again there was glorious sunshine and warm temperatures on the Fife coast. Spring had well and truly arrived.

Stephen, his father and uncle were playing golf at the nearby stunning links of Kingsbarns, so I spent the afternoon walking around town familiarizing myself with St Andrews, I had been there many times before I moved there but it is always special walking around the historic streets of the Home of Golf.

Once the guys had finished playing golf, I went to meet them at the Dunvegan for what everyone hoped would be an exciting and happy time watching Rory McIlroy become Masters champion. The sense of anticipation was immense.

The drama and excitement of Masters Sunday began at the first hole on an evening that will live long in the memory for anyone who was in the Dunvegan on that April night. Immediately you knew something very special was set to occur when Charl Schwartzel, another outrageous young talent, pushed his approach to the first green and then played a sublimely rolling chip into the hole for a quite amazing birdie to cut the deficit on McIlroy to three shots.

Rory opened in exactly the fashion he would have had nightmares about overnight reaching the green safely enough but taking three nervous putts to make an unsettling bogey and within seconds his lead was gone, Charl Schwartzel had joined him at the top.

In great rounds there is almost always a moment of truly outrageous brilliance and for Schwartzel this came at the third hole, he spun his approach to the 350-yard par four third hole for an eagle to start 3-under for the first 3.

But unfortunately for Rory it wasn't just Charl Schwartzel coming after him, the Ulsterman showed weakness and the best players in the world circled like a shark around a helpless swimmer in the sea, and soon they would devour him.

Four-time Champion Tiger Woods made birdies at the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th to offset a bogey at the 4th to pull to within three of Rory and Charl at the top, by now my friend was clearly tense as he watched one of his closest friends struggle in the early stages of the final round.

The 21-year-old made a par at the par five second hole before missing a golden opportunity to make birdie at the third, his six-foot putt slid by in a sign of real nerves and tension created by his and Schwartzel's start, now it really was game on. He parred the fourth and then an almighty cheer from the 8th where Tiger Woods played a superb second shot to within ten feet of the hole and rolled in the putt for eagle, this brought him to ten-under and tied with Schwartzel who had made a bogey at the fifth, one stroke behind Rory at the top.

Then came the mistake which really set the tournament alight from McIlroy at the fifth, he drove into the left fairway bunker and attempting a daring recovery shot the ball crashed into the lip, the ball managed to get out of the trap but would then find the bunker through the green and wound-up taking bogey to fall into a tie with Woods and Schwartzel. Tiger had made up seven shots on Rory and suddenly 5 and 6 players had the chance to claim the green jacket.

But finally, something positive came for Rory at the seventh, rolling in a fifteen-foot birdie putt to take the lead on his own again and when Woods made a bogey at the 12th and McIlroy had daylight once again. It didn't make things any easier for the Irishman who made poor pars at both the eighth and ninth, still Rory held the lead with 9 holes to play on Masters Sunday.

And if you had offered that to him at the start of the week, he would have bitten your hand off. That is of course if you hadn't have seen the first three days when he played peerless golf and led the field a merry dance, the front nine was a struggle and the tension was building, and about to explode with one swipe of his driver.

A quick, out of rhythm swing pulled the ball miles to the left and it hit the trees and went further left, so far left it was in the front garden of the cabins, most people didn't even know that they were in bounds. Rory recovered to put himself back in play but followed this with a pulled wood down to the side of the green where he would proceed to hit the trees again and wound up taking seven on a par four to fall to 8-under and seventh place.

A four-putt double-bogey at the 12th and a pulled drive into the hazard on 13 wrecked any hopes McIlroy had of holding on to a chance of victory, it was sheer hell for Rory stood drooped over his club on the 13th tee and it was just as bad for all of us in the Dunvegan, especially Stephen. It was at this point that he decided he couldn't watch anymore, and he left the Dunvegan with his wife, uncle and father bitterly disappointed at what had transpired. I stayed on to watch one of the truly great finishes in Masters history.

As McIlroy exited stage left Tiger Woods posted the target in the clubhouse of 10-under-par, setting the mark which the remaining contenders had to match or pass on a wild last six holes. Angel Cabrera, Luke Donald, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Geoff Ogilvy and Charl Schwartzel all had the opportunity to seize the chance of glory at Augusta, and at one stage there was a five-way tie for the lead.

But it all came down to three Australians and a South African. No Australian had ever claimed the green jacket so for there to be three in with a chance at the same time was quite extraordinary, Geoff Ogilvy made 5 birdies in a row to get himself involved in the huge tie for the lead, but he couldn't get beyond 10-under-par and had to settle for the same score in the clubhouse as Tiger Woods.

Adam Scott birdied the 14th to break the tie but was joined by Schwartzel, who made a good birdie from the back of the 15th green to reach 11-under with three holes to play. Scott then evoked memories of Nicklaus '86 further with a superb tee shot at the par three 16th to set up another birdie to reach 12-under. The South African however would just not be denied.

Schwartzel played a decent tee shot on the 16th and rolled in the putt from 15 feet to match Scott and would then repeat the trick at the 17th and 18th to take a quite remarkable victory with a round of 66 and a historical finish. Nobody had ever made four birdies to finish to win The Masters Tournament, Schwartzel birdied 15, 16, 17 and 18 to go along with his remarkable start he had a truly unbelievable finish to end one of the truly great Masters of my or anyone else's lifetime.

It was as heart pumping as it was heart-breaking, it was thrill-a-second stuff from the first hole to the last and it was the exact example you would want to give of The Masters to an alien who had landed on planet earth that April Sunday afternoon.

It is absolutely remarkable to think this was 15 years ago, and to think what has happened for both Rory McIlroy and me in those 15 years.

In 2011 I had no clue I would end up as a photographer, working as a journalist and photographer at several significant golf events over the next decade, and as it would transpire, interviewing McIlroy for the online golf magazine I come to own in the following years.

There’s so much I could write about the last 15 years, the ups and the downs for Rory on the course, and me off it.

But I don’t think I would change anything, because you see, I believe in fate. The things which have happened to me both personally and professionally over the last 15 years have meant to be and have led me to where I am today. I also believe in fate for McIlroy too, he needed to taste painful defeat in order to become the great golfer he is today with the best record of any golfer over those 15 years.

14 years on it was ecstasy for Rory as he defeated Justin Rose in a playoff to win his first Masters, and complete the Career Grand Slam. The victory took him into a group of golfing greats including Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus and Woods, and was the ultimate high point in a 15-year period which saw him move from prodigious young talent to established legend of the sport.

Much of the talk coming into this week was about how McIlroy had got "the monkey off his back" and "much more relaxed" he was after his win at Augusta last April. But the idea that this was going to a breeze for McIlroy is nonsense, and he admitted after the round that he still had the nerves when he put the ball on the tee on the first hole this morning.

However, psychology has always been a massive thing in this great game, and it was clear that McIlroy had lifted a huge burden by winning last year, and his opening round of 67 will see him take the lead into Friday for the first time since he did so 15 years ago. It is Deja vu for McIlroy, as it is for me, 15 years on, and hopefully the agony of 2011 is replaced by the ecstasy of becoming just the fourth back-to-back Masters champion in history.

McIlroy's round of 67 matches Sam Burns and they lead heading into Friday.

England's 3-time runner-up Justin Rose bogeyed the final two holes to post 70.

2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed opened with a round of 69, and 2-time Masters winner and World Number 1 Scottie Scheffler got underway with a round of 70.

Bryson DeChambeau, viewed as a pre-tournament contender, shot 76 while his fellow LIV Golf star Jon Rahm crashed and burned with a 78. Scotland's Robert MacIntyre posted a shocking 80, leaving his title hopes in tatters. All three will face a massive battle to make the weekend.

For McIlroy though, he doesn't have to worry about making the weekend, his eyes are firmly on the prize, and we are set for a memorable weekend, just as it was for me 15 years ago as I spent my first weekend in St Andrews as a resident.

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SHANK, by Matt Hooper