Rory McIlroy has been ‘trying to poke holes’ in his game to find further improvement ahead of The Masters, despite an impressive start to the PGA Tour season.
McIlroy tops the FedExCup standings following his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am victory over Ryder Cup team-mate Shane Lowry in February, and his win at The Players in a Monday play-off at TPC Sawgrass.
This week the world No 2 will make his first appearance at the Texas Children’s Houston Open since 2014, in what will be his final PGA Tour start ahead of the major season with McIlroy keen to build on a strong start to the year.
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“I just want to get a card in my hand and shoot scores. Hopefully get myself in contention and try to win another golf tournament,” McIlroy told reporters ahead of the event, live from Thursday on Sky Sports.
“It’s not as if I’m playing here this week and thinking about two weeks’ time [The Masters]. I’m here, I’m in the present and I’m trying to do my best this week to win this golf tournament.
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“I’m obviously playing well and I want to keep playing well. I think every round you play, where you see good things, you’re sort of filling up that confidence bucket a little bit.
“It was great to get a win a couple weeks ago but I still feel I could have played a lot better. I tried to poke holes in a lot of my game last week and think about things I could do better. There were definitely things that I could work on or do better.
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“It’s a good opportunity to go out and see if some of the work I did at home, and I’m continuing to do here, hopefully it’s all going in the right direction.”
McIlroy will among the favourites for The Masters, where he will have another opportunity to complete the Grand Slam, with the Northern Irishman taking a scouting mission to Augusta National on Monday ahead of his latest bid for a fifth major title.
“I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens,” McIlroy explained. “There are four greens that are new this year, that they’ve redone.
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“You have a look at those and see if there’s any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that. Apart from that, honestly for me, it’s nice to play a practice round without people around and it sort of takes the pressure off the start of the week for me.
“There’s a lot of obligations, there’s big commitments – whether it be from media or the par-three tournament on Wednesday, so I just like to get up there and feel like I’m not rushed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the week of the tournament.”
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When asked about the damage Hurricane Helene had caused the par-three 16th at Augusta National last autumn, McIlroy added: “The loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable and they’ve had to redo that green, but it’s exactly the same as what it was.
“The hole will play, apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost, it’s pretty much the same.”
McIlroy is joined in this week’s field by world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is still chasing a maiden PGA Tour victory of the season ahead of his title defence at Augusta National and hopes of a third Masters win in four years.
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“It’s a similar grass to what we see at Augusta,” Scheffler said. “It’s also a big golf course, you’ve got to hit it far out here, so there is definitely some similarities and good preparation between here and Augusta.
“Feeling pretty good [about game]. Excited about the stuff that we’re working on right now and game feels like it’s in a good spot. Definitely excited to get the season going this week.”
Watch the Texas Children’s Houston Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Early coverage begins on Thursday from 12.15pm on Sky Sports Golf ahead of full coverage from 8pm.
