Friday 23 March 2018 19:51, UK
Rory McIlroy is relishing the chance to ramp up his Masters preparations after making an early exit from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
The world No 7 was eliminated from the group stage for the second year running at Austin Country Club, winning only one of his three matches and suffering a 5&3 loss to Brian Harman on Friday.
McIlroy was making his sixth start on the PGA Tour in seven weeks and came into the event on the back of a victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but now gets an extra weekend off ahead of the opening men's major of the year.
"I wish I was hanging around for the weekend, but I'll rest up and get a little bit of work in before going to Augusta," McIlroy told reporters.
"Going from winning on Sunday to travelling on Monday and getting an early practice on Tuesday to play on Wednesday, I didn't have a lot of time to sort of recharge the batteries.
"Obviously I have a couple of days extra at home that I wasn't planning on. I'll just chill out, rest up a little bit, recharge the batteries, get into the gym.
"Have a good week training and a good practice week and just get myself ready for Augusta. I'm excited about it, it should be good."
McIlroy bounced back from Wednesday's opening-day loss to Peter Uihlein by seeing off Jhonattan Vegas to keep his qualification hopes alive, only to make a poor start against Harman and find himself three down at the turn.
Harman drained a 20-foot birdie at the 11th but found the water at the next to give McIlroy a lifeline, although the American picked up another shot at the 13th and saw out victory to secure top spot in Group 6.
"I left myself behind the 8-ball after losing that first match, and scraped it back little bit," McIlroy added. "Brian (Harman) played great today. He made a few birdies and didn't really make a mistake.
"I feel like my game is in good shape. I got off to a bit of a scrappy shot today. I was two under on the back nine and trying to press, and Brian just played really, really well."
Watch the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play throughout the weekend live on Sky Sports Golf. Live coverage continues on Saturday from 2pm.
