McIlroy eyes up Wells Fargo joy in bid to forget Masters misery

RORY McIlroy has revealed how he got over the disappointment of suffering more Masters misery as he looks to celebrate his birthday with a third victory at the Wells Fargo Championship.

McIlroy began the final round at Augusta National three shots off the lead and closed to within a shot of eventual winner Patrick Reed after two holes, but faded badly with a closing 74.

That prompted a week of binge-watching television box sets and reading psychology books “The Chimp Paradox” and “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”.

But, after being dragged out of the house by his wife Erica, McIlroy is now ready to return to competitive action at Quail Hollow, a course where he has won twice before, including his maiden PGA Tour title in 2010.

“It was just the quiet moments when you’re staring off into the distance and thinking about a certain shot or a certain putt, so it got to the point where I needed to see a bit of daylight and start to do my normal things,” McIlroy said.

“Once I got back into my routine I was fine; I was disappointed because I just didn’t give a good account of myself.

“I got lucky on that Saturday, that 65 was as good as I could have scored. I chipped in, there were a couple of balls that hit trees and came back into the fairway, hit it up into the azaleas and got away with it.

“I was sort of holding my game together, and on Sunday — under the pressure of chasing Patrick down — it just never clicked for me.”