McIlroy, Spieth come to Augusta wanting what the other has

The PGA TOUR sports hundreds of card-carrying members, but there are only two outside of Tiger Woods that truly make the masses feel something when charging up a leaderboard.

While Scottie Scheffler is unquestionably the best golfer in the world, he still doesn't have the ability to captivate - and frustrate - the audience like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth.

The two biggest draws on the TOUR come to Augusta National looking across the aisle at each other and wanting one specific thing the other possesses.

There's no secret about what McIlroy covets - that crisp green jacket Spieth slips over his shoulders when he enters the Champions Dinner each year at Augusta National. The annual think pieces about this being McIlroy's best chance to finally complete the career grand slam are in full swing, especially since he enters the Masters this year with wins at Pebble Beach and The Players.

For Spieth, meanwhile, McIlroy's consistent brilliance on TOUR is something he likely barely remembers from early adulthood, but it's something he surely covets nonetheless. There was nobody better in the world from 2015-17 than Spieth, as the Texan claimed three majors by the age of 23. But his form since then shows more volatility than the stock market the past few weeks.

Comparing the duo's results in the year-long FedEx Cup standings over the last decade tells a jarring story. Year after year, McIlroy remains one of the top golfers in the world, while Spieth is in a losing battle to remain a top-40 player on the PGA TOUR.

Spieth's average place in the FedEx Cup since the end of the 2017 season is 42.5. McIlroy's is 6.3. The win difference hits like a punch in the face, as Spieth has only two TOUR wins since 2017 while McIlroy has piled up 15. The two are seemingly at different points in their golf journeys, yet this is the one week a year when you might fancy Spieth's chances over those of the four-time major winner.

Something happens to Spieth when he drives up Magnolia Lane. He summons a level of play on the iconic course that few others have ever possessed. His game might be the opposite of McIlroy's consistent dominance for 51 weeks a year, but the second week of April almost always brings out his best. His 28 birdies as a 21-year-old in 2015, when he ran away from the field to win the green jacket, remain the most ever in a single Masters. That came on the heels of a second-place finish as a 20-year-old the year before.

Spieth's Masters career features top-five finishes in more than half of his starts in the tournament - an eye-popping number given he's now played 11 times. Sure, the 31-year-old's resume isn't without heartbreak - see the shocking collapse to Danny Willett in 2016 - but it's clear he's figured out the proper way to navigate Augusta National.

The same can't be said for McIlroy. However, not everyone would go to the extreme that Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee did when discussing the Ulsterman's fit at the course.

"It is literally his nemesis," Chamblee said on a conference call last week, according to Christopher Powers of Golf Digest. "It brings out the worst golf in Rory annually that we see. It was his worst golf last year in the majors, his worst the year before, two years before that it was his worst golf. He annually underperforms there. He hits on average about 42 greens. On average, the winner hits about 52. There are things about that golf course that have been very problematic for him."

That's not to say McIlroy hasn't had his moments at the Masters. He's posted seven top-10 finishes in the event. But overshadowing those finishes is one of the worst heartbreaks of his career, which he suffered way back in 2011 when he posted a final-round 81 with the last group of the day.

If you think 14 years is enough to take away that pain, McIlroy's actions suggest otherwise. He recently took a fan's phone at the Players Championship who chirped him about that round.

However, McIlroy admits his perspective on the importance of winning at Augusta has changed over the years, and he said ahead of the 2019 Masters that he no longer sees winning the event as a necessity.

"There's a difference between a personal desire and a need," McIlroy said, according to ASAP Sports. "I would have said a couple of years ago, 'I need a to win a Masters. I need a green jacket.' Where now it's, 'I want to. I want to win it. I'd love to win it. But if I don't, I'm OK.' And I think that is the difference."

McIlroy may not publicly convey a sense of urgency, but it's safe to say he feels an extra bit of heat every time the second weekend of April arrives. Chamblee told the Golfing Gazette that "nobody in golf faces as much pressure annually as Rory does at Augusta National."

Spieth has figured out the course over his career, but he might also have the mindset that McIlroy needs to get over the hump and get that green jacket.

“Augusta’s just blown up more than it probably should be,” Spieth told Sean Zak of GOLF.com. “In that sense, it gets blown up towards Rory. Majors are majors. Augusta’s, you know, if you look at the field, it’s technically the easiest major to win, so the more I think someone focuses on that, the better.”

Maybe Spieth will slip on a second green jacket Sunday evening in Butler Cabin after combining McIlroy's consistency with his outstanding form at Augusta. Perhaps McIlroy will become the first man since Tiger Woods to win the career grand slam by taking down Augusta in Spieth-like fashion.

Either way, both men will emerge as major storylines from the 89th Masters.