Rory McIlroy interviews in the Press Room are fast becoming a favourite among golf journalists. Their non-golf content is the hot topic, often even more than his phenomenal golfing talent.

It was no different as Rory McIlroy walked in this time, on the eve of his 11th start at Augusta, where he needs to win to complete the coveted Career Slam. He has been in the Top-10 last five years and is in terrific form with a win at The PLAYERS and a string of Top-10s.

Yet, the subject matter of his interviews these days are no longer ‘pure’ golf, about the shots he plays or how he will play them. They have now been overtaken by “Rory, the Seeker of his Inner Self”.

He talks about what he is evolving into off the course. His attitude has changed; he reads a lot of books, and talks a lot about the mind. And he talks about playing golf 20 years on. He also described Augusta as a “spiritual place” when it is not the Masters week and that he loves it with the serenity as it was when he turned up for a practice round last week.

Sample this : “I would dearly love to win this tournament one day. If it doesn’t happen this week, that’s totally fine, I’ll come back next year and have another crack at it. But I’m happy with where everything is, body, mind, game. Acceptance.”

Now sample this : “So it’s not as if I’m coming here not to try and win the golf tournament, but I know if I have the right attitude and I have my goals that I want to achieve this year, the by-product could be winning this golf tournament.” (Near cliché’, but it’s all right!)

Just as we allow that to pass, he adds, “I think the big thing is I am not my score; I am not my results. That’s been one of my big things, and that — it’s perspective. It’s perception. I always talk about these P’s that I try to practice, and it is.” Mind Games.

Then comes this : So, what has been the best book he has read this year? His answer: “The Greatest Salesman in the World , by Og Mandino, that’s the one that I sort of refer back to every now and again. Either of the Ryan Holiday books are pretty good, The Obstacle is the Way or Ego is the Enemy . Just started on Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson, so getting into that. There’s four.” The Seeker.

Journey starts here

Later, when asked about mobile phones not being allowed at Augusta, a question as clichéd as any in golf, he added, “…Playing a practice round yesterday, I said to Harry (Diamond), his caddie and best friend, ‘How good is it that people aren’t looking at their phones?’ Yes, there are people with cameras, but they don’t constantly have their face in the device. It’s refreshing.”

He added, “There’s actually a book I’m reading at the minute called Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and that goes into all that and how devices are, there are obviously so many wonderful things about them, but only if used in the right way. I think it’s cool to see that and see that Augusta has upheld that tradition. I think it’s a great thing.”

Has all this education been self-taught? Clearly not.

He replied, “From books — there’s loads — obviously this isn’t all me. I’ve had some help on the way. I started to use a facility down in Jupiter called CIHP, and the medical director there, Dr. Clayton Skaggs, you know, we chat a lot, and he’s with me this week a little bit.” “Yeah, that was — it came from Brad Faxon. Brad has been going there for a couple years, and then he recommended them to me. I was at a point last year where I didn’t really have anyone specifically looking after my body, looking after my exercise. So he sort of said, ‘why don’t you go and see these guys and see if they can help,’ and that was the start of this journey.”

Just in case you missed out, the Masters this year has 87 players, of whom probably less than half have a chance of winning.

Hey, by the way, McIlroy is one of the strongest contenders this week, coming on the back of some amazing results and Top-10 finishes in his last five Masters. He has also had Top-5 in last three Open Championships and the total is pretty impressive: 11 Top-10s in Majors, including two wins in five years between 2014 and 2018.

But these days, we prefer talking to McIlroy on matters other than golf. And they are fun. Maybe, that’s what he wanted and that’s how he wanted to us look at things. Clearly he has succeeded well.

This tournament also has a player named Tiger Woods, four times winner here, but not since 2005; a Phil Mickelson winner here twice, and a Bubba Watson, who has won it twice in this ongoing decade and a bunch of other champions, the last four of whom won the Masters for their first Major.

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