McIlroy vows all-out attack at Augusta

RORY McILROY has vowed to take the attack to Augusta as he seeks to complete his career Grand Slam in style.

Six-time winner Jack Nicklaus and McIlroy’s former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley both claim a more calculated and conservative approach is the key to success.

“It’s like the song says,” said the Dubliner quoting Kenny Rogers in The Gambler. “You have to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.”

But McIlroy insisted he has learned from the scarring experience of blowing a four-shot lead in the final round in 2011 when he got too defensive.

The Northern Irishman, who recorded his first win for 18 months at the Arnold BY NEIL McLEMAN Palmer Invitational, said: “I’m more comfortable this year and I think there are a few reasons for that. My game is in good shape and I’m confident in it.

“But I sometimes feel like I’ve given this golf course a little too much respect and I have got off to slow starts.

“I just have never been close enough to the lead going into the last day to feel like I’ve got a real chance after 2011 and that’s me being too comfortable with not taking my opportunities.

“So I think just being that little more aggressive and that little more efficient.

“You can score very efficiently around here and you look at Jordan Spieth making 28 birdies around this place in 2015. I just have to keep reminding myself of that when a tournament starts.”

McIlroy, 28, has played 90 practice holes and feels better prepared to handle the hype of winning his fourth different Major.

He said: “I know a win here and what that would mean, where that would put me in history alongside some of the greatest that have played this game.

“That would mean an awful lot to me. But have I to try to clear my head of that come Thursday morning and go out and play good golf.”