The weather gods have not been all too forgiving at the 2024 Masters. Their anger seems to come at a cost to invitees. After all, following a rainy Day 1, not everyone could cope well with the gushes of high-speed winds that engulfed Round 2 of the Augusta National Golf Course. Among the players whose games suffered at the hands of the windy weather, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy’s names stand out the most.

This is because the defending champion and the pro who almost always wins, respectively, were among some of the most promising names on the roster in the race for the Masters title this year. Still, events took a turn such that Rahm is now stationed at T44 with a score of 5-over-par and McIlroy at T35 with a score of 4-over-par at the end of Day 2. So what became the biggest nemesis of these stars, who seem to be losing their luster at the hands of mental fatigue and frustration?

Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy on the windy Masters test

The challenging Georgian weather coupled with the difficulty that the Augusta National Golf Course poses are two of the most deadly roadblocks on the way to a glorious start to the Masters for these World Tour proponents. So much so that the Spaniard went as far as to term the ANGC “as hard a golf course as I’ve seen in a very long time.”

Describing how hard his experience was playing in the high-speed winds, Rahm said, “Very. A couple of times questioned myself why we were out there… the whole front of the green just full of sand…we were getting those massive gusts every couple of minutes or so. It was extremely difficult.”

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The wind did not just become an impediment in Rahm’s dreams of a Green Jacket but also for his Global Golf ideology curator, Rory McIlroy, who shared his take on the weather-induced slow pace-of-play. He said, “It felt long…it was stop and start, hard to get into a rhythm with the conditions and obviously how slow the play was as well.”

The wind-induced mental fatigue was talked about at length by the Northern Irishman, wherein the four-time major champion also highlighted the effects of wind on the massive yardage difference that could come in a matter of a few seconds and iterated, “Yeah, it’s hard. Mentally it’s a grind because you just have to try to commit as best you can to the shot that you’re trying to play. One second you’ll have a shot that’s playing 150, and then if the wind does something different, the shot could be playing 180. It could be a 30-yard difference. ” 

In such dire conditions, how will this duo of unfortunate circumstances take on their respective futures?

McIlroy and Rahm’s assessment of their future at the Augusta National GC

The weekend has now set upon the Augusta-based course and performing anything but one’s best golf is no longer acceptable if they have their eyes set on the Green Jacket. As Rahm continues to remain hopeful that he can rectify his shortcomings in the days to come, McIlroy’s hopes of obtaining his first major in the last 10 years are also strong.

Citing his previous experience of making his way to the top of the roster from 10 shots back in your career at Wells Fargo, and Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year, McIlroy continues to think he has a shot to “go out tomorrow and shoot a low one, get back into red numbers, and have half a chance going into Sunday.”

Whether Rahm and McIlroy will be able to make their dreams come true or not still remains a matter of time.