McIlroy seeks final masterstroke

Eight years into Rory McIlroy’s professional golf career, there’s only one opening hole that still puts butterflies in his stomach.

It’s the unassumingly named Tea Olive – the 445-yard par-4 No. 1 at Augusta National every Thursday of Masters week. With all that’s on the line this week, the fluttering might be audible this time.

McIlroy, the 25-year-old from Northern Ireland, would complete golf’s career Grand Slam with a victory here. The last man to do that – by winning the U.S. Open, the British Open, PGA and Masters – was Tiger Woods, who completed it at St. Andrews in 2000.

“I couldn’t ask for a better place to do it at other than St. Andrews, and for Rory you couldn’t ask for another better place to do it than here at Augusta,” Woods said Tuesday.

It will take a turnaround of his fortunes here to pull it off. The world’s No. 1 ranked player has only finished in the top 10 once in six Masters appearances. His most memorable performance came in 2011, when he led by four shots entering the final day only to suffer a back-nine collapse that left him with an 80 and a 15th-place finish.

McIlroy recently called that Sunday “the most important day of my career” in an interview with BBC Sport. He certainly has learned from it, winning four majors since, including the past two – The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and the PGA at Valhalla.

“He’s obviously the best player in the world for a reason,” said Rickie Fowler, the world’s No. 13 player. “He’s played quite well the past couple years. I know he struggled a bit for a year or so. But the year he put together last year, winning two, yeah, it’s tough to do. He’s shown that he can play well here at Augusta, and I know he’s just as ready as anyone else to go out and play well this week.”

Only five players have won a career slam – Woods, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.

“I’m sure he’ll have many green jackets in his closet before it’s all said and done,” Woods said.

McIlroy has given the hallowed course at Augusta National, which will play 7,435 yards this week, too much respect in the past, he believes.

“I had to learn to try and be a little bit more aggressive, aggressive to my spots here, instead of looking at a pin and sort of thinking of the places not to miss it,” he said. “The first couple years, I was thinking more about where not to hit it instead of where to hit it. That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned, just try and get it out of your head where you are and what it means and just try to execute your shots like you normally do.”

That will be harder this week.

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 12:15 AM with the headline "McIlroy seeks final masterstroke."