McIlroy – I wasn’t ready

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A slightly older and wiser Rory McIlroy will look to defend his Wells Fargo Championship title this week.

A slightly older and wiser Rory McIlroy will look to defend his Wells Fargo Championship title in Charlotte this week.

Looking back on his deep disappointment in the Masters earlier this year, McIlroy, who turns 22 years old today, feels he wasn’t yet ready to win a major.

“First thing I don’t think I was ready – that was the most important thing,” he told reporters at Quail Hollow yesterday, the scene of the magical 62 that gave him his first PGA Tour title a year ago.

“I displayed a few weaknesses in my game that I need to work on.

“But I think you’ve got to take the positives – for 63 holes I led and it was just a very bad back nine that sort of took the tournament away from me, I suppose.

“But what can you do? There’re three more majors this year and hopefully dozens more that I’ll play in my career.

“I was just trying to stay ahead of the field, which in hindsight probably wasn’t a good thing.

“I just should have gone out, played my game and said ‘Right, if I play well today I’m capable of shooting 65 around this golf course and winning by 10’.

“But that’s not the way it worked out and that’s experience. That’s just learning to be in that position more often.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to get myself in those positions more often in my career and sooner or later it’s going to happen where it finally clicks and I’m able to handle the whole thing a lot better and win.

“It took me a couple of days maybe to get over it. It was a great chance to win a first major, but it’s only golf at the end of the day.

“No-one died. I’m very happy with my life, very happy with my game.”

This is McIlroy’s first time back in the USA since the events at Augusta, and he’ll be eager to put his Masters experience well and truly behind him with a good showing this week.

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