Rory’s all tuned up for Augusta
NexT stop the Masters for rory McIlroy and let us hope his final competitive hole before the season’s first major in just over a fortnight’s time proves a portent of things to come.
Taking dead aim with his second shot on the dangerous 18th hole at Bay hill yesterday, the world No 1 judged it beautifully. The eight-iron approach finished just six feet from the hole and he rapped home the birdie putt for a 70 for a tied 11th finish in his first appearance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where American Matt every completed a successful title defence.
Given McIlroy climbed to within a stroke of the lead on Friday with a run of five birdies in a row during his second round 66, it hardly represented the summit of his ambitions for the weekend.
But the tournament was really all about prep work ahead of his attempt to become the first european to complete the career Grand Slam and, in those terms, he pronounced himself content.
‘I feel like I got what I wanted out of the week and saw some progress on the things I am working on between now and Augusta,’ he said. ‘Now I’ll go away and work on them some more and hopefully be ready for the Masters.’
That work will be completed at the Bear’s Club near his home in South Florida. Those greens will be a lot closer to Augusta speed than the ones at Bay hill, where he never really looked comfortable.
As for the Masters, McIlroy said: ‘I’m excited with it now so close, and the chance to win a third major in a row and become just the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. It is a nice position and I am going to embrace it.’
McIlroy began seven shots off the lead and threatened briefly to assemble the sort of finalround charge that saw him make up just such a deficit to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last year.
he birdied the two par-fives, the fourth and sixth, and looked certain to birdie the eighth but the putt somehow failed to drop. McIlroy bent over in exasperation and at the next his race was run in terms of winning when he made an untidy bogey. It looked as if the round would fizzle out but he assembled something of a grandstand finish with two birdies in his last three holes.
Alongside McIlroy, europe’s other leading hope for a first Masters triumph in 16 years must be the Swede henrik Stenson, but he will be smarting after throwing away a golden opportunity to win Palmer’s tournament.
After two fourth-place finishes in a row in Florida, he began the final round with a two- stroke lead. he lost that on the front nine owing largely to forceful attacking play from Americans Morgan hoffmann and every, but had regained his lead with four holes to play.
Successive three-putts at the 15th and 16th holes then proved costly as every played a marvellous iron shot to the 18th to set up what proved the clinching birdie. Stenson could not match it to give the unsung Floridian a one-shot win.
As for Ian Poulter, the UK’s other player in contention at halfway, he will be disappointed after a final-round 72 left him outside the top 20.