“He’s never teed it up at the Masters with anything to prove,” Nantz said during a recent appearance on Golf’s Morning Show 5 Club. “Now, you’re always trying to prove, but he has that career Grand Slam… his legacy is cemented forever. And now he gets to go play Augusta without any downside? I mean, look out.”
Nantz is arguing that the removal of the existential weight of the Grand Slam pursuit transforms McIlroy into an entirely different competitor, even as McIlroy arrives at the 90th Masters with significant setbacks. A lower back injury forced him out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, and he struggled to a 46th-place finish at The Players Championship. And he hasn’t played since.
And Nantz is not unaware of this. “If that back is healthy, and I trust that it is, I think that this could be a very big week for him,” he added.
“He’s never teed it up at the Masters with nothing to prove… until now.”
Jim Nantz explains why @McIlroyRory could be even more dangerous this year at Augusta National Golf Club.
With the career Grand Slam complete and his legacy cemented, Rory now plays with total freedom —… pic.twitter.com/ottJlhJgkw
— 5 Clubs (@5ClubsGolf) April 9, 2026
Yet, history is not on McIlroy’s side. Only three players in the 90-year history of the tournament have successfully defended their Masters title – Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods. No player has achieved the feat in the 24 years since Woods in 2002. And for McIlroy, the journey to this defense was an 11-year marathon of scar tissue.
So, the 2025 Masters battle wasn’t an easy one for the Northern Irishman. He had to defeat not just his rivals but his own history. And he did it perfectly. He outdueled Bryson DeChambeau, the man who had defeated him at the previous year’s U.S. Open, physically and mentally. And though McIlroy stumbled into a playoff with Justin Rose after a bogey on 18, he finished the job on the first extra hole with a wedge to three feet, finally completing the career Grand Slam.
The victory has given him some freedom. “I feel so much more relaxed,” McIlroy noted before the 2026 start, while also clarifying that comfort isn’t an option. ” It doesn’t make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win”.
Nantz summarized this evolution: “He’s got all that. Just go play with total boyhood freedom. That young boy was just with a bag on his shoulder at the Hollywood Golf Club. Just go be that guy for the week, and I think it could be extraordinary.”
McIlroy’s close friend and fellow pro Shane Lowry also said something similar last May.
“I keep saying to him, no matter what he does now, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure he doesn’t think like that. I’m sure he’s very driven to win more,” Lowry said.
But Rory isn’t the only player Nantz has strong opinions on this year. In a surprising pre-Masters media call, Nantz offered a ‘shocking confession’ regarding Bryson DeChambeau.
Jim Nantz’s Bryson DeChambeau confession before the Masters
Nantz recently provided an interesting confession while naming DeChambeau as one of his top picks to win the Masters next week.
“I think if you had to pick one guy, [Scottie Scheffler] would be the guy, and probably right behind him would be Bryson [DeChambeau],” Nantz said.
Despite naming DeChambeau as one of his top two favorites to win the green jacket, placing him right behind world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, “given his recent track record,” Nantz also admitted to a massive gap in his preparation.
“I have to confess, I have not seen Bryson hit a single shot this year. I have not seen him,” Nantz said. ““So for me to say what his form looks like, all I can go off is the YouTube videos I’ve watched with my son. That’s all I’ve seen.”
No one knows what’s going to happen this week at Augusta National. But the narrative of the 90th Masters belongs to the tension between Rory’s newfound freedom and the chasing pack led by a formidable DeChambeau. Whether McIlroy finds his form and joins the back-to-back legends, or someone unexpected rises to the occasion, the results promise a historic edition.
