It certainly seemed to inspire his playing partner Collin Morikawa, who, feeding off the euphoria around the 18th green, also contrived to hole his bunker shot to sign for a five-under-par 67 and fifth place.
It was too much to expect him to win. To do so would have been to tie the biggest final round comeback ever at a major (10 shots by Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open).
McIlroy certainly did not expect to, although he did do an almost imperceptible double-take in his press conference later on being informed that Scheffler had just four-putted on 18.
McIlroy was justifiably proud of himself, even saying he thought it was a round of which the late, great Seve Ballesteros would have been proud.
“I sort of thought to myself: ‘What the hell, let’s give it a go here’,” McIlroy said of his attitude going into the round.
“I birdied one and then managed to keep my foot down. I knew it would take something incredible to give Scottie something to think about.
“And I thought I’d done that when I holed out at 18. But he’s closing this thing out like a champ. Hats off to him. He’s been head and shoulders above everyone this week.”
Asked about that bunker shot on 18, McIlroy smiled: “Honestly, I thought it would just give me a chance. At that point Scottie was at -10 and it got me to -7 and he still had some tricky holes to navigate. And it was like the third shot I holed from off the green today. It was a round Seve would have been proud of I think.”
McIlroy bridled slightly when asked about his slow starts, arguing that you have to play your way into majors.
“You’re not going to shoot 66 every time you tee it up in the first round of a major and win by a ton of shots,” he said.
“It has happened before, but these golf tournaments especially are about hanging around. If you try coming out of the blocks too fast, that’s when you make mistakes.
“I’ll have major championships where I start fast, and have chances, like the US Open last year. And I’ll have majors like this when I get off to a bit of a slow start.
“[But] I gave it a great go. I couldn’t really have asked any more of myself. I’ve shot my best ever score at Augusta, and second place is my best ever finish. Okay, it wasn’t quite enough, but I’ll be back next year and I’ll keep trying to go one better.”
All very true. And how wonderful it will be to see him do it. Until then, we must enjoy him for what he can do, for rounds like Sunday’s at Augusta National.
The game is always greater for a marauding McIlroy. There is no more thrilling sight in golf. Unfortunately, until he proves once again that he can do it when the pressure is on, the cynics will always carp.
