Sunday 26 March 2017 14:33, UK
Rory McIlroy revealed he played 27 holes at Augusta National on Sunday as he steps up his preparations for the Masters early next month.
McIlroy headlines a strong field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week before he heads to Texas for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and he will then have a week off to fine tune his game for the first major of the year.
The world No 3 impressed on his return to golf after a six-week lay-off with a rib injury at the WGC-Mexico Championship, where he led at the halfway stage before fading over the weekend, finishing four shots behind Dustin Johnson in a tie for seventh.
The 27-year-old took the opportunity to get some golf in chilly conditions at Augusta on Sunday in a fourball which included his father, although he insisted it was "more for fun" than serious preparation for the Masters.
"Physically, I feel good," said McIlroy during his press conference at Bay Hill. "The last couple rounds of golf I played have been in pretty chilly conditions, and I felt pretty good with that. I actually went up to Augusta last weekend and played 27 on Sunday and it was cold. But I came out of that and I felt good.
"It was more for fun than anything else. I don't feel any time you go up to Augusta before the tournament week, you get a little bit out of it, but I don't really think you get that much, because the golf course plays so dramatically differently the week of the tournament.
"So, it was more for fun. I went up with my dad and a member there, Jimmy Dunn and a member of Seminole, Mike Sanger, and we teed it up on Sunday, played 27 straight and headed back to Florida. But it was good. Any time you get to play Augusta with your dad or anyone, it was a cool trip."
McIlroy was happy with his performance in Mexico, and he is looking forward to playing in Bay Hill and Austin as he attempts to find the best way to prepare heading into his latest attempt to complete a career grand slam of majors.
But he also insisted the experience of being in the final group out for both the third and final rounds was useful, particularly as he did not expect to be in that position in his first start since losing a play-off to Graeme Storm at the BMW SA Open in mid-January.
"I think it was more just with my game to see where I was and what I needed to do," he added. "I felt my ball striking was pretty good, it was hard to really judge your putting because the greens got a little bumpy at the end of the week. But I feel I worked a bit on my putting this week and it feels good.
"But really just I think the experience of being in the last group for two days in a row on Saturday and Sunday will, that will help. I didn't really expect to be first week back, I was trying to just play my way into a little bit of form and I was sort of hoping that if I could improve each and every round, that would be a big bonus.
"I didn't do that, but I got myself in a position where I could have, I had a chance to win the tournament. So I was happy with that.
"You're always trying to figure out the best way to peak for tournaments, it's a very inexact science, you don't really know. Certain things I've worked on in the past and sometimes you try to replicate those and they don't work and you mix it up and you do something else.
"You can do as much preparation as you want for a golf tournament, but if you don't execute the shots when you're there when you need to under the gun, it doesn't really matter. Going into Augusta or the US Open or whatever, you know the shots you're going to need and you practice those and you try to make yourself as comfortable as possible.
"When you do that and you're a 100 per cent confident in practice, it usually translates on to the golf course. So I've tried many things, I've played the week before Augusta, I haven't, I played the week before majors that I've won, I haven't played the week before majors that I've won.
"I mean, you can do a lot of different things to prepare and I've done it a few different ways and been successful. So, I don't know if that's been a good thing or a bad thing, because I'm always trying to mix it up and change."
