McIlroy flying under the radar

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April 7, 2011

Rory McIlroy has been purposefully avoiding the spotlight ahead his next great challenge at the Masters.

The Northern Irishman chose to play some practice rounds at Augusta last week, and has intentionally avoided the press and hullabaloo this week in an effort to keep his energy levels up.

He only arrived back on Tuesday, and emerged on Wednesday to play nine practice holes and participate in the par-three competition.

“I haven’t done any media work this week – just purposely trying to fly in under the radar,” said McIlroy.

“Obviously all the talk is about Phil (Mickelson) winning last weekend, Tiger (Woods) and Martin (Kaymer) as number one in the world and Lee (Westwood).

“I have just tried to stay as quiet as possible and do my own thing and hopefully make a bit of noise at the weekend.”

Despite being only 21 years old, McIlroy has already played in over 100 professional tournaments, and has racked up two victories, one each on the PGA and European Tours.

“Having just two wins in 100 tournaments isn’t good enough, so I want to get that percentage up. Obviously it would be a nice start here to get another one,” he said.

“My game has been very consistent – three top 10s and a couple of chances to win. Feels like I haven’t quite knocked it off on a Sunday when I needed too, but I feel like my game is in good shape.

“It’s all there – just a case of producing it on the course when it matters.”

In his debut Masters appearance in 2009, he finished a very respectable 20th place, though he missed the cut last year – something he’ll be anxious to rectify this week.

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