I need to get back playing like a teenager – McIlroy

RORY McILROY wishes he could turn back the clock and play like a teenager again as he bids to end his four-year Major drought this summer.

Believing he was too conservative in the final round of the Masters, when he shot a 74 to finish six shots behind Patrick Reed, he said: “I think as you get older, your natural instinct to become a little more careful.

“You take way more risks when you’re a teenager than you do in your 20s than you would do in your 30s and it’s only natural to be that way, not just in golf but life in general. I just need to get back to playing the game like I was a teenager.”

As he prepares to host the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open for the fourth and last time in Ballyliffin this week, the world number eight insisted he’s not losing sleep over his failure to win a Major since 2014.

McIlroy said: “Look, if I didn’t win another Major for the rest of my career, nothing is going to change in my life whether I win one or not.

“Obviously I don’t feel like I’ll have fulfilled my potential. But at the same time, there’s other things in my life that are more important than golf.”

He added: “It’s still my career and I still want to make the most of it and I still feel like I have a lot of time left to make my mark on golf. But at the same time, as I said, it doesn’t keep me up at night thinking if I never win another Major, I can’t live with myself.”

A massive 11,487 strong crowd turned up in Ballyliffin for yesterday’s Pro-Am and McIlroy hopes to feed off the crowd and win the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open for the second time in three years.

“I felt like I did a really good job at The K Club a couple years ago at using the crowd to my advantage,” he said.