HAPPY RETURNS

McIlroy shrugs off Masters misery as he bids to party in style

RORY McILROY hit the couch to recover from suffering more Masters misery – now he’s aiming to celebrate his birthday with a third win at the Wells Fargo Championship.

McIlroy began the last round at Augusta National three shots off the lead and closed to within a shot of eventual winner Patrick Reed after two holes – but he faded badly with a closing 74.

It wasn’t like the collapse of 2011 when he enjoyed a four-shot lead after 54 holes before crashing to a closing 80.

But the Northern Irishman has now failed to convert his first four chances to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in completing a career Grand Slam.

And it prompted a week of binge-watching television and reading psychology books such as “The Chimp Paradox”.

But McIlroy is now ready to return to action today at Quail Hollow, a course where he has won twice before, including his maiden PGA Tour title in 2010.

He said: “It was just the quiet moments when you’re staring into the distance and thinking about a certain shot or putt so it got to the point where I needed to see a bit of daylight and start to do normal things.

“Once I got back into my routine I was fine. I was disappointed because I just didn’t give a good account of myself on that final day.

“I got lucky that Saturday, that 65 was as good as I could’ve scored. I chipped in, a couple of balls hit trees and RORY McILROY came back into the fairway, I hit it up into the azaleas and got away with it.

“I was holding my game together and on Sunday, under the pressure of chasing Patrick down, it just never clicked for me.”

McIlroy, 29 tomorrow, admitted he was also feeling the weight of expectation of trying to complete the career slam.

He said: “The Masters has now become the biggest golf tournament in the world and I’m comfortable saying that.

“I don’t care about the US Open or the Open Championship, it is the biggest golf tournament in the world, the most amount of eyeballs, the most amount of hype, everything is at Augusta.

“I got on to the first tee and it was like, ‘Wow, this is pretty cool, it feels like there’s a lot of people rooting for me here’. Even the Augusta members were saying, ‘We’d love to have dinner with you tonight’.

“It’s nice but I thought, ‘Don’t be ordering me anything just yet’!”

McIlroy and world No.2 Justin Thomas are Quail Hollow joint favourites and Tiger Woods makes his first start there since 2012 when he missed the cut.

You stare into the distance and think about a certain shot or putt