Rory McIlroy preps for the Masters: ‘All eyes on Augusta’

It’s almost time. Spring is in the air, the azaleas are blooming, the piano notes waft gently through the Georgia pines. It’s almost time for … the latest edition of “Can Rory Win the Masters This Year?”

Rory McIlroy stands in a curious position atop the golf world. The PGA Tour’s undisputed alpha dog, he’s playing reliably excellent week-to-week golf, finishing third in last weekend’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event. He’s producing highlights on the course, like this drive to within three feet of the pin on a 375-yard hole:

He’s become the voice of tradition and the face of the Tour as the LIV schism continues. He’s even kicking back and acting like a normal human being every now and then, like when he joined the "No Laying Up" podcast for an entire episode about, of all things, the HBO series “Succession.” He’s won four majors, he’s already a first-ballot Hall of Famer, he’s one of the giants in the history of the sport.

And yet … his most recent major came in 2014. For all of his recent trophies and his established prominence on the golf discourse, McIlroy is still lacking that one last honor — or jacket, to be more direct — that will cap his career.

Over the last nine Masters, McIlroy has four top-fives, seven top-10s and just one missed cut. He’s specialized in the backdoor cover, playing well when the pressure is off to give a misleading characterization of how his week has gone.

Take last year as an example: Scottie Scheffler was knocking the cover off the ball, effectively locking up the tournament by Friday. On Sunday, starting 10 shots behind Scheffler, all McIlroy did was shoot a 64, tied for the lowest round in the history of the tournament, to finish … three shots back.

McIlroy will spend his annual Augusta news conference early next week assessing the state of his game and facing the same questions of whether this could be the year he finally brings home the green jacket.

Players regularly swing through Augusta for a round or two in advance of the Masters, and McIlroy sent golf Twitter’s pulse fluttering last week when word trickled out that he stopped in for two days, played 54 holes — interesting number there — and had a spectacular round that included a mere 19 putts.

“I feel a lot better about things now compared to this time a couple weeks ago after The Players Championship,” McIlroy said this week at the WGC. “All eyes on Augusta and just making sure that the game's ready. But everything feels in really good order, just work on some things that I know that I'll need for that week and just make sure I'm ready and rested.”

Putting is key to winning at Augusta, and up to this point, putting has been a severe weak spot for McIlroy. On the season, he ranks 172nd on Tour in shots gained with the flat stick at -0.429, meaning he’s giving away almost half a stroke a round on the green. (By contrast, he ranks first in driving distance and sixth in shots gained off the tee at 0.852.) Still, he appeared more comfortable with a new Scotty Cameron putter over the weekend, another bit of necessary good news for the state of his game.

Not only that, McIlroy earned a small victory by taking out Scheffler in the consolation round of the Match Play. Both McIlroy and Scheffler made the final four of the event, but both lost in their semifinal round. Granted, a consolation tournament doesn’t mean much; the PGA Tour doesn’t really recognize podium finishes. But any victory over Scheffler is a notable victory, and McIlroy appears ready to roll into Masters week with a tiny edge.

“I don't think anything is in, you know, real need of tons of practice,” McIlroy said. “I think my game's in really good shape, so just keep it ticking over and work on the shots that I need for Augusta National and away we go.”

Away we go, indeed. And so it begins.