It might be a tactical ploy to ease some of the pre-Augusta attention, but ahead of next week’s Masters Rory McIlroy has revealed he is managing an elbow niggle despite another strong performance at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
McIlroy carded a blistering final round of 64 and threatened to upstage Min Woo Lee’s big day as he briefly whittled a nine shot gap with seventeen holes to play down to just three as he approached the finish.
The world number two bookended his round with bogeys but mixed an eagle and six birdies in between to share fifth place on fifteen-under, five shots behind Lee and he feels he still has plenty to work on until he makes his 17th Masters appearance next Thursday.
Look, it was a good week,” said McIlroy, who will rendezvouz with his long time coach Michael Bannon this week.
“I still feel like I’ve got some stuff to work on, but overall, a solid week and nice to have another week to get ready and fine-tune my game going to Augusta.”
He added: “I still don’t think my game is 100pc under the control I want. But it’s nice to have a week to work on some things.”
On top of some driving issues to get a handle on, the four-time major winner is nursing a niggle in his elbow which he plans to have treatment on.
“My right elbow’s been bothering me a little bit, so maybe just get some treatment on that and make sure that that’s okay going into Augusta,” he said
“I’ve got my coach, Michael Bannon, coming in tomorrow. We’ll do some work. And, you know, make sure that everything’s in good shape for a week’s time.
“It’s just about feeling as comfortable as I can be with the things I’ve been working on, which is iron play, wedges, obviously, short game is really, really important around Augusta as well.
“So I’ll work on those things over the next few days, and hopefully I’m feeling good going in there.”
“I just took a little bit of loft off it,” he said. “I felt like it was getting a little bit spinny, especially if I wanted to hit cuts off the tee.
“It definitely went through the wind better today, and felt a little more comfortable with it leaving here and going towards Augusta.”
McIlroy admitted that he was struggling with his driver during the first three rounds having also struck the ball poorly off the tee despite winning the Players Championship earlier this month.
A change in loft ahead of last night’s final round in Houston paid dividends as he found eight of thirteen fairways and was second in strokes gained off the tee.
“I just took a little bit of loft off it,” he said. “I felt like it was getting a little bit spinny, especially if I wanted to hit cuts off the tee.
“It definitely went through the wind better today, and felt a little more comfortable with it leaving here and going towards Augusta.”
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