AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy stated Tuesday that he is making an attempt to dam out noise that this week could be his finest probability to seize an elusive inexperienced jacket on the Masters and turn out to be solely the sixth golfer to finish the profession Grand Slam.
The four-time main championship winner would be part of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Participant, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the one golfers to win the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Open Championship.
It is going to be McIlroy’s eleventh try at making an attempt to attain the feat at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership.
“It is simply narratives. It is noise,” McIlroy stated throughout a information convention Tuesday. “It is simply making an attempt to dam out that noise as a lot as doable. I have to deal with this match like all the opposite tournaments that I play all year long. Look, I perceive the narrative and the noise, and there is a variety of anticipation and buildup coming into this match every 12 months, however I simply need to preserve my head down and deal with my job.”
GolferMasters StartsLee Trevino20Rory McIlroy16 <<Walter Hagen6Tommy Armour5Jim Barnes0>> Getting into this week– ESPN Analysis
A victory at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership would additionally finish McIlroy’s main championship drought of greater than 10 years. He final gained a significant on the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Membership in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2014. He has gone 0-for-38 within the huge 4 since then.
If McIlroy slips on a inexperienced jacket on Sunday, it could have been 3,899 days since his 2014 PGA Championship victory, which might be the sixth-longest span between wins by a participant in a significant championship, in response to ESPN Analysis.
It could be one in every of McIlroy’s finest probabilities to do it. He completed within the high 5 in eight of his previous 11 worldwide begins, together with victories on the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am in February and final month’s Gamers Championship. It is the primary time in his profession that he gained a number of occasions in a season earlier than the Masters.
It isn’t like McIlroy hasn’t been near ending the profession Grand Slam. He has 21 top-10 finishes in majors since 2015, 4 greater than every other golfer throughout that span.
In final 12 months’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, McIlroy had a two-stroke lead with 5 holes to play. Nonetheless, he carded bogeys on three of the final 4 holes, inexplicably lacking putts of 2½ toes on No. 16 and 4 toes on No. 18 and misplaced to Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke.
McIlroy additionally misplaced a final-round duel to Wyndham Clark on the 2023 U.S. Open. He was the second participant previously 40 years to complete runner-up by one shot in the identical main in consecutive years; Jim Furyk did it within the U.S. Open in 2006-07.
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Within the a hundred and fiftieth Open Championship on the Previous Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, in July 2022, McIlroy had an opportunity to gather a Claret Jug for the second time. However he could not make any putts within the remaining spherical and completed third, two strokes behind winner Cameron Smith.
“I’ve had probabilities to win a few of the greatest golf tournaments on this planet and it hasn’t fairly occurred,” McIlroy stated. “However life strikes on. You mud your self off and also you go once more. I feel that is why I’ve turn out to be a bit extra comfy in laying every part on the market and being considerably susceptible at occasions.”
There’s been loads of heartache at Augusta Nationwide for McIlroy, too. In 2011, he led by 4 strokes going into the ultimate spherical and carded an 8-over 80 on Sunday. Seven years later, he performed within the remaining group with eventual winner Patrick Reed and will solely handle a 2-over 74. McIlroy tied for fifth at 9 underneath.
Three years in the past, McIlroy had his finest remaining spherical on the Masters, an 8-under 64, which catapulted him into solo second at 7 underneath, three strokes behind winner Scottie Scheffler. It appeared that efficiency might need exorcised no matter demons have been in McIlroy’s head when it got here to enjoying within the Masters.
However then he missed the minimize in 2023 and tied for twenty second final 12 months.
“Look, when you could have an extended profession like I’ve had, fortunately, you type of simply be taught to roll with the punches, the great occasions, the unhealthy occasions, understanding that for those who do the appropriate work and also you observe the appropriate means, that these disappointments will flip into good occasions once more fairly quickly,” McIlroy stated.
Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson believes McIlroy has pretty much as good of an opportunity as anybody to win the Masters.
“I feel he drives the ball so lengthy and straight that he has an enormous benefit on that golf course,” Mickelson stated final week. “He and about 20 guys that drive it like he does could have a bonus of enjoying it a sure means. They will play it a sure means that’s far more aggressive and reap the benefits of holes than some others, than guys like myself. However you continue to need to execute, you continue to need to hit the pictures, and I feel that is what he is centered on.
“I feel his potential to compartmentalize all of the issues which have transpired previously is a energy of his, so I do not suppose it will; be a difficulty, or I do not suppose that is what’s holding him again from profitable the Masters.”
McIlroy stated he hasn’t modified his preparation for this 12 months’s Masters. He performed observe rounds at Augusta Nationwide on March 24 and once more every week later.
McIlroy stated an elbow harm that was bothering him a few weeks in the past is ok.
“I’ve all the time liked this course,” McIlroy stated. “Individuals ask me, ‘In the event you might solely play one golf course for the remainder of your life, what wouldn’t it be?’ And I feel strolling round this place day by day can be fairly cool.”
