By Doug Ferguson
Rory McIlroy has put together a menu for the Masters Club dinner nearly as dramatic as the back nine he played at Augusta National to win the green jacket.
There’s a taste of home in Northern Ireland with his mother’s bacon-wrapped dates as an appetiser and Irish Champ as a side dish.
He’s stayed local with crispy Vidalia onion rings that come from a 20-county region in southeastern Georgia, and Georgia peach and ricotta flatbread.
And, no, that isn’t just any yellowfin tuna carpaccio as the first course. The staff from Augusta National flew to McIlroy’s favourite restaurant in New York, Le Bernardin, to meet with the chef so they could prepare the dish just the way he likes it.
There are 12 items on the menu from appetisers to dessert, and then four labels from Augusta National’s fabled wine cellar.
The host picks the menu — but he also has to pick up the tab.
Scottie Scheffler last year had Texas touches with a cowboy ribeye, Texas-style chili and jalapeno creamed corn. Jon Rahm’s menu had a Spanish flavour. Hideki Matsuyama of Japan had sashimi. Sandy Lyle of Scotland served haggis and Aussie Adam Scott included Moreton Bay bugs.
“It wasn’t put together off the top of my head. I tried to be pretty thoughtful with it,” McIlroy said.
“Tried to incorporate some of the things that I like and some little personal touches along the way. But at the same time, trying to put together a good enough menu that everybody would enjoy.”
After sticky toffee pudding as dessert, the feast closes with a 1989 Chateau d’Yquem, his birth year.
“I think every great meal deserved to be finished off with Chateau d’Yquem,” mused McIlroy. “It is like liquid gold.”
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