Bay Hill brilliance has McIlroy confident of wearing Augusta’s Green Jacket

McIlroy entered last week’s tournament in patchy form after missing the cut in two of his four PGA Tour starts this year. But the 28-year-old produced a spectacular final round to claim his first title since 2016, and that has him buzzing ahead of the year’s first major.

“I have even more optimism now,” McIlroy said.

“The win was just more validation that what I’ve been doing has been correct. It all sort of just came together.

“I’m optimistic not just for the next few weeks but for the whole season. It’s great to get a win early. I’ve got all that great stuff to fall back on, how I handled Sunday.

“I’ve always been able to turn negatives into positives. I was feeling quite comfortable going into last week. And hopefully I will continue to have that feeling for a while.”

The four-time major winner has long been talked about as a future wearer of the Green Jacket — his all-round game is ideally suited to the long and testing Augusta course. Except for a memorable final-round meltdown in 2011, which left him in 15th place having led on the 10th tee, he has rarely contended at the Masters. It is the one major McIlroy is yet to win and he has long talked about using the first three months of the season simply as preparation for the famous tournament.

McIlroy’s patchy form until his Bay Hill brilliance left some questioning that strategy. But McIlroy said that winning was his main goal, and he dismissed the idea that silencing his critics gave him extra motivation.

“I don’t care because people don’t know the full story,” he said. “They make comments and they speculate, but they don’t have the facts 100 percent, so they never really know. It’s all speculation.”

Current Open champion Jordan Spieth, Master winner in 2015, said McIlroy is now the player to beat at any tournament — provided the Northern Irishman can maintain his fitness.

“Whether he won last week or not, he is always a force,” Spieth said. “He just needs to be healthy. And I think most of last season, it was a struggle for him.

“So just being rested, healthy and on the right path meant that this year and going forward, Rory is Rory. And so he should always be a favorite at any event.”

LONDON: Rory McIlroy believes his victory at Bay Hill proves he has what it takes to win his first US Masters next month.