McGinley — McIlroy may need stepping stone Major win before donning Masters green jacket
Paul McGinley with Masters contenders Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy
Paul McGinley believes Rory McIlroy may need to end his winless Major streak elsewhere before he can complete the career grand slam at the Masters.
McIlroy has never gone into the season's first Major in more encouraging form following what were arguably B-game wins in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players.
He's worked hard over the past couple of years with mental coach Dr Bob Rotella to try and end a barren Major run that dates to the 2014 PGA Championship.
But such is the pressure of trying to become just the sixth man in history to win all four of golf's modern Majors, McGinley wonders if he might not have a better chance at Augusta if he can get over the line in one of the other three Majors first.
"Eleven years is a hell of a long time for a player of his quality," McGinley said in a conference call promoting NBC's coverage of next week’s Masters.
“ I’ve said it before, but many players back in 2014 are still right at the very top of the World Rankings or even anywhere in the top 10 of the world rankings. People have come and go; the Jordan Spieths have come and go; the Brooks Koepkas have come and go; the Bryson DeChambeaus have come and go; but the staying power that he’s got, the sustainability over that period has been absolutely phenomenal, and the big miss is not having a major championship.,|
That said, McGinley is still upbeat about McIlroy's chances, not just because he's won twice without having his best but because he's got mental coach Rotella in his corner.
"Rory's coming at things in a slightly different way now, based on all the experiences he's had of not being primed on Monday, being primed on Thursday morning," McGinley said.
"There's a plan going on behind the scenes. I believe he's up again this week in Augusta. He may even be there today. He was there last week and he's had so many runs at this.
"The difficulty is navigating all the pressure, the expectation, the press conferences, not bringing too much attention on himself, as much as he can deflect it, trying to get into a really calm head space
“He doesn't need to over practice up there. He knows the golf course well. I would say there'll be a lot of practice going on this week as there was last week but like a boxer going into a fight, he’ll taper it off as he gets closer to the Thursday morning.
"And so I really do think that having Bob Rotella on his shoulder is a really important influence. There's nobody who's worked with more Major champions as a coach than Bob has done.
"Rory's biggest challenge is the mental one, and dealing with the baggage that comes with not just knocking off a Major championship for the first time in 11 years, but also trying to complete a Grand Slam."
Meanwhile, Kirkistown Castle's Beth Coulter (21) tees it up in the 54-hole Augusta National Women's Amateur at Champions Retreat on Wednesday, safe in the knowledge that she's already achieved one of her lifetime dreams by making the 72-strong field.
"It's been a huge goal of mine since the ANWA started," the Curtis Cup star said of her invitation.
"To be only the third Irish person to play is really cool. I worked really hard in the fall to get my world ranking down and thankfully saw the hard work pay off when I got the call."
England's Lottie Woad defends the title in an event where the Coulter tees it up with 2021 champion Tsubasa Kajitani from Japan and American Casey Weidenfeld for the first two days.
The field plays two rounds at Champions Retreat and while all competitors get a practice round at Augusta National on Friday, only the top 30 and ties qualify for Saturday's final round at the Masters venue.
On the LPGA Tour, Leona Maguire will be looking to go one better than last year when she lost to Nelly Korda in the final of the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards in Las Vegas.
There is no stroke play qualifying for the matchplay this year with a round-robin stage where Maguire faces Canada’s Brooke Henderson in Group 8 as Jin Young Ko takes on Taipei’s Peiyun Chien at Shadow Creek.
