Rory McIlroy made a clutch sand save at the last but insisted on looking at the positive after a 73 left him six shots behind leader Sungjae Im in the Masters.

The Co Down man had a 16 footer to go two-under at the 14th but three-putted, missing a four-footer for par.

He went on to short side himself in the sand right at the 16th, dropping a shot there, before having to get up and more sand from the last just to go into the second round tied for 31st, six shots behind Im.

"I played much better than the 73, but I'm happy with how I played, and if I can bring that sort of form into tomorrow, hole a few more putts and get a bit more out of the round, I'll be pretty happy," McIlroy said.

"If you start well tomorrow, you'll be on the board. Again, I wish I could've got a little more out of that round because I played I felt like I played better than the 73, but as I said, I'm just really encouraged with how I played.

"I drove the ball well, hit my irons pretty well for the most part and if I can continue to do that over the next three days and just hole a few putts and be a little more efficient with my scoring, I feel like I'll be right there."

McIlroy drove the ball long and straight, missing just two fairways and only four greens.

He birdied the par-five second, three-putted the sixth after spinning off the front of the green then saved par from 17 feet after bunkering his approach at the 10th.

He appeared to be on the march when he knocked in a 30 footer at the 11th for a rare birdie three to move into the red.

But he couldn't birdie the par-five 13th or 15th, then bogeyed the 16th and did well to avoid another dropped shot at the last.

His finish was costly, but given his generally impressive ball-striking, he's upbeat about his chances, even though he did pull a few putts late in his round.

"I feel like it was the worst I could have shot today," he said. "I feel like I played really, really well. I pulled a couple of putts, so I want to go on the putting green now and work on that a bit.

"But I'm encouraged with how I played, so I've just got to try to get more out of the round tomorrow."
McIlroy has opened with a sub-70 round twice in 14 appearances in the Masters, but he's not worried about that statistic.

"I'm just pleased that I played well," he said. "I don't really care where I'm at on the leaderboard. It doesn't matter. I played well. I hit the ball great from tee to green for the most part. So I'm pleased with that."
Augusta National dried out during the day and with winds forecast to gust up to 30 mph today, it's only going to get firmer, faster and harder.

"I'm looking forward to that," he said. "That will be really good. The course is in incredible shape with the amount of rain we've had the last couple of days, so looking forward to dry conditions over the next three days."

As for his comments before the start that he was prepared to play "negative" golf, he said: "I thought I did really well. I hit it to a lot of the middle of the greens and made a lot of easy pars.

"It was very stress-free for the most part. Hit a couple of loose iron shots at the end that I needed to try to get it up and down. Overall, again, I wish I could have gotten more out of the round, but it was pretty stress-free out there."