The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Putting no hindrance to McIlroy’s title bid
Rory McIlroy insists his muchcriticised putting is good enough to secure a first Masters title and complete a career Grand Slam.
McIlroy ranked a lowly 140th in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour last year and suffered an embarrassing five-putt during the second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this month.
However, the former world No 1 is confident he has what it takes to triumph at Augusta National and become just the sixth player to have won all four major titles.
“At Augusta you don’t need to putt great, you need to not waste any shots, no three putts, hole everything inside five feet,” McIlroy told BBC Sport. “I feel good about Augusta, I know the golf course so well.
“You don’t need to hole every 15-footer that you look at, you need to be efficient, just not to be wasteful.
“Speed is important and lag putting, they are big keys and I feel like I’ve started to get lot better at that, especially there because there is a lot of break and a lot of different slopes but I think I have it figured out.”
McIlroy took a four-shot lead into the final round of the 2011 Masters before collapsing to a closing round of 80, but believes he will eventually get his hands on a famous green jacket.
“This will be my fourth go at it (achieving the Grand Slam), I have had three top-10s in the last three years and I played well, but just not played well enough,” the fourtime major winner added.
McIlroy is one of only five of the world’s top 50 to miss this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship.
The 65-man field are competing for a prize fund of £7.2 million and winner’s cheque of £1.2m in Mexico City.
Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day, Henrik Stenson and Brooks Koepka are the other players to miss out as European No 1 Tommy Fleetwood aims to continue his superb start to the 2018 season.
Fleetwood comes into the event at a career-high of 11th in the rankings after successfully defending his title in Abu Dhabi, finishing sixth in Dubai and fourth in last week’s Honda Classic.
“The year’s been great so far,” Fleetwood told a press conference. “It was important, after having such a good year, to keep going, just like (Honda Classic winner) Justin Thomas has done this year.
“He just keeps progressing and that’s what you hope to do and what you’ve kind of got to do. So far so good, but you can never take your foot off the gas.”