[PHOTO: Christian Petersen]
Rory McIlroy is competing at the Texas Children’s Houston Open this week in his final start before the Masters. But on his way to America’s “Lonestar State”, McIlroy made a detour.
McIlroy will head to Augusta National has one of the favourites to win the green jacket thanks to a marvellous start to the 2025 season, highlighted by capturing the Players Championship earlier this month. The Masters is the last hurdle for the Ulsterman to capture the career Grand Slam, and because it’s been the evasive final piece for a decade now, McIlroy’s relationship with the tournament has perpetually been one of the Masters pre-week storylines. Which is why private plane trackers (weird folks, those private-plane trackers) called out on social media that McIlroy’s jet made a pit stop from Florida to Texas in Georgia, with McIlroy playing a practice round at Augusta National earlier this week.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday in Houston, McIlroy was asked about his trip, and remarked that a number of putting surfaces have been altered.
“I use those trips just to refamiliarise myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens,” McIlroy explained. “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.
“Apart from that, honestly for me, 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. 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.”
This is not especially a surprise. The course and club are in constant evolution, and while big changes at Augusta National are treated with fanfare (such as the significant overall to the par-5 13th hole in 2023), many smaller modifications happen annually but go unannounced.
Conversely, the Augusta area suffered significant damage from Hurricane Helene last year. Augusta National and Masters chairman Fred Ridley said in January that the course recovered well, although noted “we have not quite as many trees as we did a year ago”. McIlroy was asked about how the storm affected the course – specifically the 16th hole, where a tree fell on the green.
“Yeah, the loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable, but in terms of, like, they’ve had to redo that green but it’s exactly the same as what it was,” McIlroy said. “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 hasn’t played the Houston Open in a decade, although a lot of that has to do with its former spot on the tour schedule. Now two weeks out from the Masters, the four-time major winner dubbed it a proper tune-up for Augusta.
“I’ve watched this tournament the past couple years, especially since it moved to this date instead of the [autumn], and felt like it was a golf course that would be right up my alley and would suit my game and suit my style of play,” McIlroy said. “Good to get a look at the golf course the past couple days. Yeah, excited to just sort of just keep going, you know. It’s been a great start to the season for me and I want to continue that.”
McIlroy tees off tonight (Australian time) alongside Maverick McNealy and Wyndham Clark.
