Colin Cowherd’s 2026 Masters Predictions: Will Rory Win Back to Back?

I had Alan Shipnuck – author of Rory – on the pod and we went deep on McIlroy: where his game is right now, the weight he’s carried, and why he might be as dangerous as ever heading into this year’s Masters.

Alan Shipnuck on Rory’s Form and Mindset

He tweaked his back in the gym. He hasn’t played in three weeks. He comes in a little rusty and people have been kind of writing him off.

But watching Rory at Augusta these last few days, he is having the time of his life and he just looks so unencumbered. I really feel like he’s going to mount a spirited defense and be carried along by the goodwill of the fans.

Rory played the hardest round of his entire career on Sunday at the 2025 Masters, and I think he’s going to step up to the first tee and feel so much freedom and so much joy and so much pride that he did it.

In my mind, he’s almost made himself the favorite with this jauntiness that he’s carrying himself with. So, yeah, he absolutely has a great chance to to win. I would actually be surprised if he’s not there late on Sunday.

Colin Cowherd on Rory and LIV Golf

As you noted, he was the face of anti-LIV Golf.

Is that his childhood telling him to do that? Is it a handler? Is it just at his soul what the PGA Tour means to him?

Because it was certainly not a courageous stand, but it was a really defiant stand and one that other notable golfers did not make. Where does it come from?

Alan Shipnuck on Rory’s Values and PGA Tour Loyalty

Yeah. Rory has a very strong moral compass and his parents never let him get out of line on the golf course or in the classroom.

Like, his parents were tough on him. And at the same time, he was surrounded by love and support. He’s always been a kind of a black and white character. There’s right and there’s wrong.

And at the same time, he’s a traditionalist. He was raised in a different culture. There’s obviously the European tour – they venerate the players who have come before them and the institution of the European tour and the PGA Tour mean a lot to Rory. His legacy is built on these platforms and he has veneration for the old tournaments, the old courses, and the old time golfers.

LIV Golf came in and tried to tear all that down, and he was offended.

He had three years before LIV arrived – that was when the Saudis first began their incursion into professional golf. It was this European tour event called the Saudi International. The first one was held in the winter of 2019. It was only three or four months after Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and dismembered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The entire Western world was distancing themselves from the Saudis on a business level, on a professional level. The only friends they had ended up being in professional golf.

To make that first tournament a success, they paid unheard of appearance fees, from Brooks Koepka to Dustin Johnson to Patrick Reed to Bryson DeChambeau to Phil Mickelson.

They offered Rory millions of dollars and he said no. He said there’s a morality to it. I don’t want their money, and I want to be on the right side of history. And so he saw it in very stark terms. He never wavered.

They would have given him half a billion dollars or more to come to LIV Golf, but he was never even tempted because he felt like they were trying to destroy what his heroes had built – and he wanted to carry that legacy on.

And it will be a part of his story that Rory helped save the PGA Tour. He deserves that.

He earned that with his advocacy, with his diplomacy and the way he reshaped the tour into a much leaner and much more competitively interesting platform. They’ve made it more star driven. They funneled a lot of money to the top players and it stopped this exodus of guys to LIV Golf. That was Rory’s vision and he made it happen with his political capital.

Just like Nicklaus and Palmer birthed the PGA Tour in 1968, Rory helped save it – and that has meaning to him more than a bag full of money.

Colin Cowherd on Rory’s Popularity in America

All countries are provincial. Canadians want to see Canadians win when they watch the Olympics.

But when I watched Rory, it felt like he’s the most popular golfer on the golf course in America at a major.

Is that historically rare? Has there ever been anybody else from overseas that the American crowd views as an ally?

Alan Shipnuck on Rory’s Connection with Fans

Yes. And that’s insightful. I would say the only non-American who might threaten that is Greg Norman.

But definitely no – no one’s ever had it as long as Rory does.

Seve Ballesteros, for example, was this amazingly charismatic figure, but he was battling the PGA Tour. He was raging against the machine and he burned hot. He had this spikiness to him. Fans could appreciate the genius, but they never felt the connection like they do with Rory.

It’s because Rory’s flawed and there’s a fragility there, right? I think makes him so compelling.

When Tiger had a lead at a major, he just snuffed the life out of it. But Rory’s blown a couple and we love that.

With Rory, it’s a high-wire act while he’s juggling chainsaws.

And when you saw that final round at Augusta, it was not about the golf. It was not about birdies and bogeys. It was about the human condition. And that’s why it was so riveting.

People were not crying on their couches because he won the career Grand Slam. Like that’s cool, that’s a nice bit of history. But it was that he had conquered his demons and it was a much more relatable thing. That victory was about not giving up on your dreams, about not quitting, about believing in yourself.

And that stuff is something you and I and everyone can relate to no matter what we do for a living.

That’s why people were so moved by it.