With no Irish in action on the DP World Tour, Challenge Tour, LPGA Tour, Ladies European Tour or the Alps Tour, all roads really do lead to Magnolia Lane for the Masters at Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will lead the Irish charge this week as the first major of the men’s season gets underway.
McIlroy is bidding to end his ten-year major drought with a maiden Green Jacket while Lowry arrives following a fruitful spring and with an improving Augusta record.
McIlroy has seven top-10 finishes at the Masters but has rarely given himself a realistic chance of winning on Sunday afternoon.
The Holywood man has tried just about every strategy possible around Masters week but linking up with Butch Harmon is certainly a new chapter of the playbook and he has said everything you would want to hear ahead of another battle around Amen Corner.
McIlroy certainly looks calm, but he needs to maintain that when he arrives on the grounds today.
“Control of myself, control of my emotions and my thought. If I can control those, it makes the physical control of everything a lot easier and a lot more simple. Yeah, just to me next week is all about discipline, about staying in control of yourself and in control of what you can control. If I can do that well, then the rest will follow.”
Lowry took his time getting to grips with Augusta National but no missed cuts in his last four appearances and finishes of 25th, 21st, 3rd and 16th show that the Offaly man has the game to compete around there.
Lowry has also shown signs of improvement this spring, breaking back into the top-50 in the world and rising to 36th while finishes of 4th, 3rd and 19th before playing in Singapore ahead of two weeks off should see him well rested and still in good shape form wise.
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