Unfortunately for Rory McIlroy, the storms forecast for Augusta on today did not come soon enough.
If he could just have stayed in the clubhouse among the ghosts and the legends that gather there every April, if he could just have sat amid the photographs and the heritage and lingered under the old oak tree between the front door and the first tee with the members, the agents, the officials and the ex-players who stand and gossip, maybe things would have been different.
But the rains did not come before the world number two teed off in mid-morning so the rains did not rescue him from a second round at The Masters it will take him a long time to banish from his mind.
McIlroy enjoyed perfect conditions for his 18 holes but that did not spare him. Around the same time he walked off the 18th green having carded a five over par 77 and missed the cut, two giant pines crashed to the ground by the 17th green, scattering terrified spectators.
The superstitious see disturbances in the heavens as portents of chaos below but students of McIlroy will know that he has settled into a pattern of anti-climax and disappointment at Augusta that he simply cannot seem to shake.
Rory McIlroy is set to miss the cut at the Masters after carding a second round 77 on Friday
The Northern Irishman hit four bogeys on his front nine to ultimately finish five-over par
It was a disappointing day for McIlroy under the pressure of winning his first green jacket
He had arrived here confident of winning his first Masters and becoming only the sixth golfer to complete a career Grand Slam. He left before the weekend, pursued by embarrassment and mediocrity.
Officials suspended play due to the worsening weather and evacuated patrons from the course at 4.22pm, a couple of hours after McIlroy had completed his round with a seventh bogey of the day on the 18th.
However hard it rained later, though, however many rivulets ran down the fairways, there was not enough water to sluice away the memories of McIlroy’s struggles.
For all his successes in the sport, it is now nine years since the man many consider to be the most gifted golfer of his generation has won a Major.
Even though he keeps coming close, even though he is a regular winner of lesser tournaments, even though he is second in the world rankings, something does not stack up. Golfers are remembered for the Majors they win, not the money they earn and McIlroy, 33, keeps coming up short.
A couple of days earlier, Tiger Woods had said it was a matter of when, not if, McIlroy would be fitted with a green jacket but others are beginning to wonder.
Many, including Sir Nick Faldo, questioned McIlroy’s decision to conduct a live television interview during his first round. Jack Nicklaus said last week that McIlroy struggles with ‘keeping his focus’.
With every failure in the prime of his career, McIlroy’s odds of winning the most famous individual prize in the sport lengthen.
All the stars seemed to be aligning for McIlroy this year but it is starting to feel as if he has built up so much scar tissue around this event that he might never win it. We keep being told he has the game to win here but maybe Augusta is Kryptonite to his genius.
He has everything else, a beautiful family, a wonderful life, four Majors, public affection: the only thing that is missing is The Masters and it has got to a point where he wants to win it so badly that the expectation – his and ours – defeats him.
This round will haunt him for some time. By the end of it, by the time he missed a three-foot putt to save par on the 16th, and then smashed his drive into the trees at the 18th, there was a quality of grim fascination about it.
Tom Kim finished T22 -2 heading into moving day at Augusta shooting level par on Friday
Sam Burns comes out of the group with the best score hitting 71 to take his score to five-under
McIlroy meanwhile will sit 17 shots back from the solo leader Brooks Koepka who sits at -12
His play from the tee was generally awe-inspiring but everything else, particularly his putting, was dreadful. Every year, his fans pray he will rise to the occasion at Augusta. Every year, it is beyond him.
Perhaps the pressure of being an ambassador for the PGA Tour was an added impediment this year.
Perhaps all the months of acting as a spokesman for the tour in its battle with the Saudi-funded breakaway LIV rebel venture finally took its toll. His struggles here may have raised a smile with the LIV chief executive, Greg Norman, who has been angered by attempts to portray LIV as a sub-standard retirement home for mercenaries.
It would not have been lost on Norman that McIlroy, who has been an aggressive opponent of LIV and whose power on the PGA Tour has increased immeasurably in the process, ended the day 17 shots behind Brooks Koepka, the tournament leader and one of LIV’s recruits.
It will be a lot harder for McIlroy to deride LIV after what happened at the Masters today.
His second round had started well, too. McIlroy smote the opening drive right down the middle of the first fairway.
The crowd of patrons around the tee gasped in awe. When his playing partners, Sam Burns and Tom Kim, had played their shots, they all walked down the hill into the valley below and then up the slope on the other side. Kim reached his ball and stopped first. Next, it was Burns. McIlroy kept walking. And kept walking.
He strode on and on beyond the brow of the hill until he reached his ball. He was in the perfect position.
But that first shot was as good as it got. His approach landed ten feet short and trickled slowly away from the hole down a gentle incline.
McIlroy stood frozen to the spot on the fairway. You may have seen that meme of former England manager Roy Hodgson’s expression turning from eager hope to utter despair in an instant; that was how McIlroy looked.
His birdie putt at the first seemed to be heading straight for the cup and then it curled away at the last instant.
At the second, he drove his tee shot into a bunker, hacked out, hooked his approach left, duffed a chip, missed a putt and settled for bogey.
At the third, he crushed another drive to the edge of the green, then sent his approach through the back of the green. When he saw his ball disappearing, he bent over and put his hands on his knees. He bogeyed the third, too.
McIlroy three-putted the par 3 sixth and hooked his drive into the trees at the seventh before bogeying that, too.
It’s been a fast start for Koepka at this year’s Masters who rampaged ahead posting 67
McIlroy will though sadly have to wait another year for his chance to win a career grand slam
He went into the water at the 11th and flew his drive at the 12th over Rae’s Creek but into the greenside bunker. He saved par there but missed an eagle putt on the 15th that might have given him some momentum for the final holes.
In the end, perhaps what he will be remembered for most at this year’s Masters was being one of the first two golfers to do a live television interview during a round, causing raised eyebrows from former greats like Sir Nick Faldo.
If McIlroy had been leading the tournament when he spoke to Jim Nantz of CBS as he was walking down the ninth fairway on Thursday, maybe it would have passed without comment.
But when you put ear-pods in to talk to a television presenter in the middle of an underwhelming round, when you play so badly the next day you miss the cut, it should hardly be a surprise Nicklaus’s comments about focus will be revisited amid the ruins of another failed tilt at the sport’s biggest prize.