CBS golf star speaks out about her relationship with Rory McIlroy after Masters moment

Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam back in April by adding the Green Jacket of the Masters to his haul of PGA Championship, US Open and Open Championship titles

Dottie Pepper has said that she and Rory McIlroy have a “playful respect” for one another.

The CBS Golf analyst was present at the Masters at Augusta back in April to watch McIlroy receive his first-ever Green Jacket first hand, completing the illustrious career Grand Slam in doing so. But the 59-year-old broadcaster explained that the Northern Irishman’s feat wasn’t exactly plain sailing.

Speaking on the Sliced Podcast, the former LPGA Tour pro said: “It was extraordinary. There were times where you wanted to say, ‘What are you thinking?’ And then there were other times you just sat back and kind of quietly applauded because it was so masterful – to steal that word, or Jim’s masterpiece, he has his masterpiece.

“The cool thing was because of the way the timing of early rounds were, I actually got to be with Rory for a portion of Thursday and of Friday. So I was there for the meltdown on Thursday when he chipped the ball into the water at 15 – finished those two doubles.

“And then to see him pounce back the way he did on Friday…that was clutch, absolutely clutch. And then literally from the first tee-shot Saturday, and again on Sunday, so I got to see basically all of it.”

When probed on if she has a particularly close relationship with McIlroy, Pepper replied: “I think it’s a playful respect. Saturday, he had the mirror image of that shot because he’d driven it right and found this window high – that was bigger than the window on Sunday, by the way by about half again.

“But he fired it over the bunkers and hole-high left, and managed to chip it up onto the plateau and make four at seven on Saturday. That was pretty cool – it was risky but that was cool. Shouldn’t even say it was risky, because he didn’t even have another option other than chipping out.

“If you launch it like that, he only had a nine iron in his hand I think – I’d have to go back and look. So we flip over to Sunday and he fires it left, and the other option is to go chip out to the right, which wasn’t even easy either, or he’s looking up. And Harry [Diamond] (McIlroy’s caddie) is looking up.

“And as he hits the shot, it was full-tilt, full face open as long as you possibly can. And it did clip one little bit of a pine tree and it goes up there past the hole and comes back. And I just started laughing, and Harry says, ‘I was trying to tell him not to do that but I’m really glad he didn’t listen to me.’

“And Rory said, ‘What was the big deal? It was the same thing I had yesterday.’ It was a light moment in what turned out to be a pretty consequential time.”