Rory McIlroy will drive down Magnolia Lane at Augusta National as a Masters champion for the first time and he intends to enjoy the experience.
However, just because he is only the sixth player to win the career grand slam by finally getting his hands on a green jacket does not mean his competitive instincts have been dulled.
In fact, having got over the line at the 17th attempt the Northern Irishman believes it will be easier to win it again.
“This is going to be the first time I drive down Magnolia Lane and it’s all going to be about enjoying my week,” the world No. 2 said.
“You know, enjoying the perks that come along with being a Masters champion: having a parking space in the champions car park to using the champions locker room, hosting the dinner on Tuesday night.”
But when the pomp and circumstance subsides on Thursday McIlroy will get his game face on and try to join Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo — and become the first person in 24 years — to win back-to-back.
His form in two events last month was not that encouraging but McIlroy is hoping a return to arguably his most emotional victory will offset that.
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“I’ve won it once, and I feel like that will make it a bit easier for me to win again,” he added.
“I don’t think there was any round of golf that I’d played before that can compare to the feelings and the emotions I went through that Sunday.”
Expectation may not weigh as heavy but he will still be expected to contend and the same can be said of world number one Scottie Scheffler, a two-time Masters champion, whose form is also the most inconsistent it has been in the last two years.
He pulled out of the Texas Children’s Houston Open in his home state as wife Meredith is expecting their second child and if he was looking for a good omen their son Bennett was born just weeks after his second Masters victory in 2024.
Time at home, which he values over anything else, may allow him a reset and even with his record at Augusta — he has finished fourth, first, 10th and first in his last four appearances — rivals may also view it as chink in the armour.
One of those desperate to take advantage will be Bryson DeChambeau. In the final group with McIlroy a year ago his chances came to a watery end when he double-bogeyed the 11th to leave his playing partner four ahead.
The American, who has dialled down the rhetoric since brashly claiming before the 2020 tournament he considered Augusta National a par 67 due to his big-hitting, at least comes in with some form after back-to-back wins on the LIV Golf circuit but how well that has prepared him remains open to debate with questions still being asked about the quality of the Saudi breakaway.
His fellow LIV golfer Jon Rahm has also been playing well and, unlike DeChambeau, already has experience of donning the green jacket in 2023 before he defected.
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