With 29 birdies in 72 holes putting out the best performance of their careers and completing three shots outside the top 10 and eight strokes behind the winner, it is hard to claim that you are in combat form going to the Masters.

Rory McIlroy insists he needs to “cut down on mistakes” to be a contender for the Grand Slam of his career – finishing 66th, finishing 17th behind Soso Championship winner Patrick Cantoule. For him in the past.

Putting four rounds together is McIlroy’s biggest challenge in Augusta National, where he has shot four rounds once or twice in 11 visits, finishing fourth in his career in 2015.

So, while promoting the fact that the Sherwood Country Club created more birds than anyone else, McIlroy knows that if three double bogies and eight bogies were made at Augusta National, more cuts would be lost than disputed.

“Limit mistakes more than anything else,” Augusta lamented about his habit of running soft double bogies when asked what to do before his next start in two weeks.

“Even today, on the 16th, I never felt like I had a bad shot, it hit a tree and came back into danger,” he said of a hole, where he had to make an eight-footer. Double-bogie seven.

“I’m trying to be very nice to go down in the green, put it close, so I can save equally, instead of telling myself to give myself a putt from 10 or 12 feet.

“I’m trying to be perfect. I’m going to be an aggressor when I’ve got myself out of position. So take a little more of my medicine when I’ve done that.

By posting pictures of a launch monitor, Masters’ favorite Bryson Decambue shows McIlroy breaking down 400 yards of barriers, thinking he’s flying under media radar.

“I like it more,” McIlroy said of the lack of dialogue. “Not so inspiring, not so noisy. I like it so much.”

As for his game, he admits that creating 29 birds and getting a 17th draw is not something he pushes out of his chest, he at least makes birds.

Every time I created a bird called “23, 24, 25” I (Cady) kept telling Harry (Diamond). He said, ‘That’s not a good thing. You are in 20th place in the tournament and you have a lot of birds. ‘Just a joke of the week.

“You know, if I can create a lot of birds in every tournament, sooner or later I’m going to avoid bad things, and I’m going to be right there.”

He turned down the Houston Open next week and plans to complete the Masters preparations with a trip or two to Augusta National.

“Yes, I will do it twice,” he said. “I might go up once and spend a night playing for a few days or a couple going separate times.”

The PGA Tour moves to the Port Royal Golf Club for the Bermuda Championship with the European Rider Cup, considering whether or not to add to its schedule a pre-Masters stop in Houston for the first time next week. Captain Pedreig Harrington joins West Waterford’s Seamus Power in Southampton.

This is explained by Jonathan Caldwell of Clandestoy at the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open, the first back-to-back events in Cyprus, before leaving for South Africa for a three – week European tour.

Bangor Man (36), the seventh-best player of his career, who finished fifth in the Scottish Championship at the Italian Open, is bidding for his maiden European tour victory. Travel with fellow owner Kormax Sharwin.

Irish Independent