Rory’s sights set on elusive green jacket

Austin – Rory McIlroy (right) believes last Sunday’s Arnold Palmer Invitational triumph provided vindication to his assertion that he was close to his best as the Ulsterman hopes to carry that form to a maiden US Masters victory at Augusta next month.

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 at the Bay Hill Golf Club to win a first title since 2016.

“I have even more optimism now,” McIlroy told reporters. “It 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 the next few weeks, but 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 went with the feeling that felt quite comfortable going into last week. And I’ll hopefully continue to have that feeling for a while.”

McIlroy said that winning was his main goal and dismissed the notion that silencing his critics gave him extra motivation.

McIlroy faced Peter Uihlein in his opening group contest at the WGC-Dell Match Playlast night, two weeks before the Masters tees off on April 5. A victory in Augusta would give him a career Grand Slam of major titles.”