Rory McIlroy made a scouting trip to Augusta National earlier this week in preparation for his latest run at winning the career grand slam.
The four-time major winner admits there’s not much he picks up on during these outings. After 17 Masters starts, he knows the course well and merely uses the time to play a practice round without having to worry about the distractions and hubbub of Masters week.
“I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of his start at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. “There’s four greens that are new this year that they’ve redone. You just sort of, 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.”
But there was one course change that caught McIlroy’s eye.
Augusta National was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September when 130 mph winds wreaked havoc on the course.
“As far as the golf course, it really was affected just as the rest of the community was,” chairman Fred Ridley said at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in October. “There was a lot of damage and we have a lot of people working hard to get us back up and running.”
Satellite images from weeks later showed two trees collapsed onto the 16th green. McIlroy noted the differences to the 16th hole, including a new green during his trip.
“The loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable,” McIlroy said. “But in terms of like 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 — but apart from that, it’s pretty much the same.”
Since moving to a spring date, the Texas Children’s Houston Open has attracted more top golfers looking to tune-up for the Masters. But while Memorial Park serves as useful prep for the year’s first major, McIlroy, who is coming off a win at the Players Championship, said he is focused only on his four rounds in the Lone Star State.
“I just want to get a card in my hand and shoot scores and hopefully get myself in contention and try to win another golf tournament,” McIlroy said. “It’s not as if I’m playing here this week and thinking about two weeks’ time. I’m here, I’m in the present, I’m trying to do my best this week and trying to win this golf tournament.”
Then, once the dust has settled in Houston, he’ll turn his attention to Augusta National and another chance to end his decade-long major championship drought.
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