Rory McIlroy made a stop on his way from South Florida to Houston, Texas, taking an Augusta National scouting trip Monday.
“I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens,” McIlroy said Wednesday at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. “There’s four greens that are new this year that they’ve redone. You just sort of, you have a look at those and see if there’s any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that.”
McIlroy cited to Golf Channel’s Kira K. Dixon, the first, eighth, 15th and 16th greens as having been altered. Augusta National Golf Club endured damage during September’s Hurricane Helene, including the loss of several trees, which chairman Fred Ridley acknowledged earlier this year.
“As far as the impact, the long-term impact, we have not quite as many trees as we did a year ago,” Ridley said in a January press conference. “As far as the golf course goes, it’s in spectacular condition. I think we had minor damage to the course, the playing surfaces themselves, but we were able to get that back in shape, but I don’t think you’re going to see any difference in the condition for the Masters this year.”
Augusta, Georgia, was one of many areas severely impacted by Helene. Beyond the course, ANGC has donated no less than $5 million toward recovery efforts in the community.
Specific to the par-3 16th, McIlroy said there was a visual difference, minus some of the trees, but, “The hole will play – apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost, but apart from that, it’s pretty much the same.”
McIlroy, who is looking to win the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, added that getting in an early round is more than just prep work.
“It’s nice to play a practice round without people around and it sort of takes the pressure off the start of the week for me,” he said. “There’s a lot of obligations, there’s big commitments whether it be from media or the Par 3 tournament on Wednesday. I just like to get up there and feel like I’m not rushed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the week of the tournament and that’s usually the reason I go there.”
Houston will be his final start before the season’s first major. McIlroy already has two high-profile wins on Tour this season – the signature-event AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship.
And while Augusta is on many minds – including his own – McIlroy is trying to stay focused on the present. In the week off following his playoff victory at TPC Sawgrass, McIlroy said he “tried to poke holes in a lot of my game,” where he believed improvement was needed. This week allows him to see how those efforts are going, during competition.
“It’s a good opportunity to go out and see if some of the work I did at home and I’m continuing to do here, hopefully it’s all going in the right direction,” he said.
“I just want to get a card in my hand and shoot scores and hopefully get myself in contention and try to win another golf tournament. It’s not as if I’m playing here this week and thinking about two weeks’ time. I’m here, I’m in the present, I’m trying to do my best this week and trying to win this golf tournament.”
