AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Just 30 minutes after stepping foot inside the grounds at Augusta National, Rory McIlroy was already faced with the all-important question hanging over him every time he tees it up at the Masters.
Can he finally win a green jacket and complete the Grand Slam?
"No question, he'll do it at some point," five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods said Tuesday. "Rory's too talented, too good. He's going to be playing this event for a very long time. He'll get it done. It's just a matter of when."
As he plays this event for the 16th time in his career, McIlroy is not only missing a Masters win on his four-time major championship résumé, but he has also not won a major in the past 10 years.
"It's flattering, it's nice to hear, in my opinion, the best player to play the game saying something like that," McIlroy said. "Does that mean that it's going to happen? Obviously not. But he's been around the game long enough to know that I at least have the potential to do it. I know I've got the potential to do it too. It's not as if I haven't been a pretty good player for the last couple of decades."
The conundrum that McIlroy continues to find himself in is this: He has played the best golf of his career in recent years, but the results in major championships haven't produced a win. He's a better golfer now than he was when he won his four majors during the stretch of 2011 to 2014, but a place among the game's best at Augusta evades him no matter how much he changes or doesn't change his approach.
"I feel like I've done it quite a few different ways, and I guess just trying to bring a little bit of normalcy into what I sort of try to do week in, week out," McIlroy said. "I play 25 weeks a year, and there's no point in doing anything different this week compared to other weeks."
While the general plan hasn't changed dramatically for this year's Masters, McIlroy's preparation has included a few alterations, including playing more golf. In 2023, McIlroy played in five tournaments before Augusta. This year, he has played in eight.
"I wanted to play quite a bit leading up to this just to feel like my game was sharp or, if it wasn't sharp, to try to get it in the best shape possible," McIlroy, who noted that he played two practice rounds during a visit to Augusta last weekend, said. "I think it's been beneficial to play a little bit more leading up. ... I'm a little more in tune with where my game with and where my misses are."
Last year, McIlroy worked with golf psychologist Bob Rotella in the lead-up to the Masters. This year, McIlroy has gone to a different resource: legendary golf coach Butch Harmon, who once worked with Woods as well. With Harmon, McIlroy said, the visits are more holistic given that he's "part psychologist, part swing coach."
"We sat and had a 45-minute conversation before he even looked at a swing or even before we really talked about golf at all," McIlroy said. "I always joke about you spend four hours with Butch and you go away with two swing tips and 30 stories. But you always go away hitting the ball better than when you came."
McIlroy called the visit to Harmon "beneficial" and said he saw it pay dividends last week at the Texas Valero Open, where his strokes gained on approach shots improved (he ranked third in the stat during the tournament) and he finished in third place.
In recent years, McIlroy's form at Augusta has been unique. Over the past 10 Masters, he has had seven top-10 finishes but also two missed cuts, including one last year. In the process, McIlroy said he has learned a lot, including not trying to win the tournament on the first tee shot each Thursday and trying his best to not let his confidence in being able to hit every shot overcome the need to be patient and grateful.
"If I cast my mind back to 18-year-old Rory and I'm driving down Magnolia Lane for the first time, how would I feel?" McIlroy said. "It's just always trying to go back to being grateful and feeling incredibly lucky that you can be a part of this tournament and you get to compete in it every year. Thankfully, I've improved a bit since my first start here, and I feel like I've got all the tools to do well this week. But, again, to bring those tools out, I think one of the most important things is to enjoy it and smell the -- I guess not the roses, the azaleas along the way."