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Rozner: Masters story should have been McIlroy's gag

Pressure is something the world has been trying to define since Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon 2,000 years ago.

Even more difficult is predicting who's going to be affected and when.

It was on full display at the Masters last weekend when so much of what occurred seemed so predictable, with one absolute shock.

Patrick Reed came out on top, hanging on for his first major with a rather pedestrian 71 in the final round, while four-time major winner Rory McIlroy coughed it up on Sunday.

Instead of repeating their extraordinary Sunday singles match at Hazeltine in the 2016 Ryder Cup, Reed merely survived, while McIlroy hit only eight fairways and eight greens and missed putt after putt inside of six feet.

That was the real stunner.

Of the top 16 finishers, only McIlroy failed to post a red number with a 2-over par final round when Augusta was giving up low scores.

Behind McIlroy and Reed (-1), Rickie Fowler shot 5-under, Jordan Spieth was 8-under, Jon Rahm 3-under, Cam Smith 6-under, Bubba Watson 3-under, Henrik Stenson 2-under, Marc Leishman 2-under, Tony Finau 6-under and Dustin Johnson 3-under.

It was predictable that Fowler would go low with no pressure on him, so much history suggesting he plays his best when a tournament looks out of reach.

And, of course, Spieth is never going to go away, always grinding and especially on a course he knows better than just about anyone in the field not named Tiger Woods, who shot a 3-under to finish 1-over and T-32.

The big story was McIlroy's choke as he attempted to finish the career grand slam, in a perfect spot knowing Reed would have to go 3-under to be the first player ever to shoot four consecutive rounds in the 60s at Augusta.

Having faced Reed in the Ryder Cup, McIlroy should have known better than to say after the third round that all the pressure was on Reed. This is not a guy you want to challenge, and it might have been all Reed needed to stick it to McIlroy, focusing on taking down his rival instead of the pressure.

But it was McIlroy who couldn't handle it. With Reed in trouble after pulling his tee shot slightly on the first, McIlroy nearly hit his first shot nearly out of bounds. It was so far right that he actually had an opening and managed an approach near the green.

"That was probably the worst tee shot in the final round of a major, in the final group of a major, that I've ever seen or probably ever will see," said Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee. "You do not forget that tee shot off one. You don't. There's a crucial role for amnesia. You really need to be able to forget those things.

"But that's a really hard shot to forget."

McIlroy never did. He was off all day with his drives and approach shots and his short game was gone. In the first 14 holes, he missed seven putts inside 10 feet and four inside six feet. On the second hole, he missed a 4-foot eagle putt that would have tied Reed at the top, a gain of 3 shots in 2 holes.

"Any time I got momentum, I gave it away on the next hole," McIlroy said. "Every time I took a step forward, I took one backward on the next hole."

The story should have been about McIlroy failing to become the sixth player in 100 years to win the career grand slam - with Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen - and Reed, the 27-year-old bulldog breaking through with his first major and sixth career victory.

Instead, as if it were his first week on Tour, it quickly devolved into the life story of Reed, his missteps as a youngster and his estrangement from his parents.

It's a sad story, his family living in Augusta just miles from the course and unable to see Reed win the biggest tournament of his life.

Judgements have been made about Reed's wife, his in-laws and his parents, without anyone beyond the people involved actually knowing why this awful thing has happened to them.

His life has been dissected, rumors have been spread for a week and much of what has been said or written is unconfirmed.

That's become the story, not the sporting aspect of a truly monumental day.

Quickly forgotten is that a four-time major champ has to somehow recover from a golfing disaster and move forward in 2018, and that a first-time major champ has a green jacket that no one can ever take from him.

Such, unfortunately, is the world we live in today.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.

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