McIlroy won’t be lured into being too greedy

RORY MCILROY will try to resist the temptation to be too greedy as he bids to win his first US Masters title this week and complete the grand slam of golf ’s majors.

The Northern Irishman led the tournament going into the final round in 2011 but carded an ugly 80 to blow his chances.

After top-10 finishes in the last three years, however, he believes he now has the experience to deal with any conditions at Augusta and he received advice this week from six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus.

“He said to me that he took on too much a couple of times and it cost him a couple of green jackets,” McIlroy (pictured) said on Tuesday.

“He said, it is a golf course that can tempt you into doing a little bit too much.”

McIlroy remembered a costly error of judgement on the 11th hole of his third round at Augusta last year when he drove the ball into the pine straw bordering the fairway.

“I’m trying to hit this low hook around and catch the hill, and trying to get it up on to the green and hit this heroic shot, and it goes in the water and I make a six. That’s the last thing I needed,” he said.

“Even if you make five, five is better than six. Take the water out of play. Just little things like that where the golf course tempts you to do something. So it’s just a matter of being smart, taking your medicine when you have to and moving on.”

McIlroy, 27, has had a quiet start to the season, missing several weeks due to a rib injury, but he has enjoyed his low-key preparations for the year’s first major.

“The break allowed me to work on a few things in my game that whenever you’re playing week-in, week-out you may neglect a little bit,” he said. “So I spent a good bit of time around the short-game area and the putting green. Obviously, it’s of huge importance this week to have your short game as sharp as possible,” McIlroy added.

The world number two, who won the last of his four major titles in 2014, has played 99 practice holes at Augusta over the last two weeks.

“Physically, I’m fine. I’ve played the golf course enough, I feel. I’m ready to go.”

Meanwhile bad weather may be good news at the Masters for Phil Mickelson, who will tee it up for the 25th time at Augusta National, better prepared he thinks than most to handle whatever Mother Nature throws at the year’s first major. With gusting winds and cool temperatures in the Masters forecast for the first two rounds, Mickelson expects many in the field to be blown off course.

But after three green jackets, 24 Masters and hundreds of rounds at Augusta National there is no storm Mickelson believes he can’t weather.

“What I like most about this week is that Thursday, Friday, the weather is going to come in,” said a gleeful Mickelson. “That’s going to magnify the misses for a lot of players.

“I hope to rely on that knowledge and skill to keep myself in it heading into the weekend where players less experienced with the golf course will possibly miss it in the wrong spots and shoot themselves out.”

The only major staged at the same venue every year, experience matters at Augusta and few players have more than 46-year-old Mickelson, who made his Masters debut in 1991.

After winning the US Amateur in 1990, one of Mickelson’s first calls was to Arnold Palmer asking if he could play a practice round with The King at Augusta.

What followed has been a nearly three-decade learning curve that Mickelson believes can produce a fourth green jacket.

“I think it’s become more instinctive and more intuitive for me to just know where the pins are that I’m going to play a certain way,” explained Mickelson. “It doesn’t require a thought process.

“I know when I’m going to try to attack and make birdies based on where the pin is, based on the wind. It’s just instinctive now.

“So what that does is it frees me up to not have to analyse my game plan.”