RORY HAS A GRAND PLAN
RORY McILROY is eyeing a career Grand Slam at the Masters next month after launching a staunch defence of his methods – and his caddie.
Before the start of the Players Championship, the Ulsterman had not won for a year and Paul McGinley claimed that he had “lost his confidence” on a Sunday.
The new world No.4 responded by beating the best field of the year at Sawgrass to be installed as the new favourite for Augusta.
Tiger Woods, in 2001, is the only player to win both the Players and the Masters in the same year. And McIlroy, who had finished in the top six in his first five events this season, said: “I won’t do anything different in the build-up to the Masters, just keep doing the same thing.
“I feel like I’ve managed the six tournaments of the year very well, even with some noise around me, whether it is, ‘He can’t close’, ‘He can’t play on Sundays, blah, blah, blah’.
“If I go to Augusta with a similar golf game to what I have now and the attitude I’ve shown over the first few weeks of the year, I think I’ll have a great chance.”
McIlroy, 30 in May, said his new maturity and perspective had helped him find consistency. He said: “Who I am as a person isn’t who I am as a golfer. It took me a while to get to that point where I realised who those two people were.”
McIlroy also faced criticism of having a mate as a caddie when former amateur star Harry Diamond took over on his bag after the 2017 Open.
But the pair now have two wins together on the PGA Tour and McIlroy said: “Harry is an accomplished golfer, and he has turned into one of the best caddies out here, if not the best.”