Rory McIlroy “much more pleased” with his recent game ahead of 2024 Masters week

It's finally Masters week, and that means it's arguably the most important week of the year for Rory McIlroy. The golfer has been searching for a major win since 2014 as well as trying to complete his career Grand Slam. This is another chance that won't return for another calendar year, and McIlroy will be eager to take advantage of it.

Ahead of the tournament, McIlroy feels good about his game. That wasn't always the case in 2024, but the Irishman believes he's turned the corner into a much better form of late, and that bodes well for his chances.

McIlroy said:

"I definitely feel like I'm in a better place than I was a few weeks ago. Through the floor to swing there was just a lot of volatility in my game, some good some bad quite a few big numbers." (0:13-0:47)

He continued, saying that he wanted to tidy things up and make sure his bad shots weren't that bad. Rory McIlroy said he will always have good shots, so what's important is limiting how damaging the misses are:

"Tthis week the bad ones were still in play and not too bad and I was able to scramble well enough when I did hit a few per ones. But again overall much more pleased with where my game is compared to say two or 3 weeks ago." (0:53-1:09)

McIlroy currently has the second-best odds of winning the tournament behind Scottie Scheffler, who is also in excellent form. This weekend should provide some strong competition, and McIlroy believes his game is in a good enough place.

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Rory McIlroy addresses key Augusta National change

The iconic course at Augusta National has undergone a slight change ahead of the Masters. The second hole has been pushed back about 10 yards and to the golfer's left when they are standing at the tee.

Rory McIlroy visited Augusta National early

This change was thought to be pretty substantial, but Rory McIlroy has visited the course to check it out and does not feel terribly concerned with it. The Ryder Cup star thought it would provide a vastly different visual, but it didn't.

He expected to have to hit around a corner, but that's not the case. Rory McIlroy said via Golfweek:

“You can still see left of the bunker and I thought it was really going to force you to hit some sort of draw shot around the corner, but you can still, you can still hit a straight away shot and keep it left of the trap. It’s not as drastic of a change as I thought it was going to be.”

This move was designed to make one of the course's "easier" holes a little more challenging. It undoubtedly will be a little more difficult, but it's not been as big a change as McIlroy had envisioned.

The golfer also noticed a few other subtle changes, but nothing major. It is still largely the same course it was before and will host an excellent weekend of golf once again.