McIlroy seeks heat of battle as Masters looms: "It’s a great opportunity to try to get a win"

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his second shot on the second hole during the third round of The CJ Cup @ Shadow Creek on October 17, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy is desperate to contend for his first win in almost a year at the ZOZO Championship in Los Angeles.

The world No 5 has not won since he captured the WGC - HSBC Champions in Shanghai last November and after failing to contend since golf returned in June following the Covid-19 shutdown, he knows it’s important to get those competitive juices flowing before he heads down Magnolia Lane for the Masters in three weeks.

Insisting he’s at Sherwood Country Club in Los Angeles not to prepare for Augusta but to win his 19th PGA Tour title, he said: “It’s a great opportunity to try to get a win and get into contention and I think that would be a big step if I were able to -- I haven't really been in contention much since coming back from the lockdown. 

“If I could get into contention this week and have a chance to win, I think that would be great for just overall confidence in play and all that. But obviously great looking ahead a couple weeks' time and getting in a position where you're having to hit shots under the gun and under that pressure of trying to win a golf tournament.”

The Co Down man admits he’s been working hard on his swing and tried to gain more speed so he can attack Augusta National, which is likely to play soft and long. 

“It's somewhere where you can maybe hit the driver a little bit more and maybe take advantage of that,” said McIlroy, who tees it up with Webb Simpson and Phil Mickelson (1941 Irish time).

Pleased with his driving and short game, he hinted that he might be thinking of taking an aggressive approach to the Masters this year.  

“One of the conversations I remember having with Phil back in the day was he always tried to get his short game so good at Augusta so then he could be ultra-aggressive with the second shots knowing that he had a short game to bail him out if he did miss it on the wrong side,” he said. 

“So you try to get your short game really sharp and get everything else sort of following that.”

The ZOZO Championship will be without the presence of Australian Adam Scott, who tested positive for COVID-19.

“While it’s difficult news to receive – as I really looked forward to playing this week – my focus now is on recovery for the final stretch of the fall,” said Scott.

The former Masters champion’s fate brought the prospect of a leading player missing the Masters front and centre and McIlroy admitted he’d been ultra-vigilant in recent months.

“I think going into Augusta, I mean the next two weeks while I prepare there, I try to be as careful as possible,” he said. “I maybe go to a restaurant once a week while I'm at home, but I try to take all the necessary precautions. I'm loading up on zinc and magnesium and vitamin D and all the stuff that's said to maybe help protect you from it. Yeah, so I try to do my part to stay as safe as possible.”

On the European Tour, Clandeboye’s Jonathan Caldwell is looking to build on last week’s career-best seventh-place finish in Scottish Championship with another big week in the Italian Open in Brescia.

The former Walker Cup star is 122nd in the Race to Dubai and knows he needs a massive few weeks to get close to the top 60 who will contest the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.

“I would have to do some serious golfing between now and then to have a chance of making it,” said Caldwell, who is joined at Chervó Golf Club by Cormac Sharvin and Gavin Moynihan. “The purses and points we are playing for aren’t obviously that huge. But I will just continue to do what I am doing and see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow tee it up in the LPGA Drive On  Championship in Georgia hoping to seal their places in December’s US Women’s Open.

Maguire is ranked 52nd in the money list with Meadow 72nd and both must be inside the top-10 players not already exempt on Sunday night to book their tickets to Champions Golf Club in Houston from December 10-13.

As things stand, Maguire is just inside the top-10 not already exempt but Meadow will is more than $50,000 outside the mark and needs to a big week in what is the last LPGA Tour event before the November 11 qualifying cut off.