McIlroy happy to chill at Hilton Head

Rory McIlroy is looking forward to a quiet week in South Carolina after his "full on" Masters debut.

The teenager, 19, will tee it up in the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head bidding to continue his amazing run of form in the US.

Golf Digest had this "original" Oirish take on Rory McIlroyWith five top-20 finishes from five starts so far, McIlroy has already racked up $551,742. But rather than worrying about the $1.02 million top prize at Harbour Town, McIlroy just wants to chill out.

Tied for 20th on his Masters debut, McIlroy said: "It’s so laid back this week compared to Augusta and it’s nice to have a week like this week after all the intensity of last week.

“The Masters was such a long week last week but Hilton Head is so different what with the harbour and so many nice restaurants to go to so.

“But it’s just great to chill out and relax after a full on week at Augusta. And looking back on last week I am pretty pleased to finish 20th place in my first Major as a pro and there’s a lot of guys would have taken that.

”Augusta was enjoyable to play as you could make birdies and I made 14 birdies and an eagle during the week and that was more than enough to win the tournament.

“It’s just that I had a few too many mistakes.”

McIlroy faces stiff competition from stablemate Ernie Els, US Ryder Cup ace Stewart Cink, former runner up Aaron Baddeley, Houston Open winner Paul Casey and hillbilly star Boo Weekley, who is going for a hat-trick of titles.

Not included in the pro-am, he will tee-up alongside Australia’s James Nitties and American Tommy Armour III having played just one practice round.

But he loves the course, insisting: "This is a great little golf course and reminds me of some of the courses I’ve played in Austria, Germany and Belgium.

“Every hole is virtually tree-lined and you can see the shots you want to play so with the shape of the hole you can see whether you want to cut a shot or draw a shot. So it’s pretty cool.”