Rory McIlroy is off to the best start to a PGA Tour season in his career, winning twice before the Masters for the first time. He has been the best player on the PGA Tour through three months, and his early success has only added fuel to the annual fire of wondering whether this will finally be the year he captures a green jacket and completes the career grand slam.
McIlroy on Thursday makes his final start before the Masters at the 2025 Houston Open. Before traveling to Houston, though, he made a pit stop to get 18 holes in his bag at Augusta National.
Speaking to the media Wednesday, Rory said his visit was a chance to play a practice round without patrons lining each hole, which gave him an opportunity to make notes on any changes to the course before Masters week and ease some of the stress of the first three days.
“I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens,” said McIlroy, according to Golf Digest. “There’s four greens that are new this year that they’ve redone. You just sort of, you have a look at those and see if there’s any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that.”
McIlroy was asked about any particular changes to the iconic 16th, which was one of the holes most impacted with damage from Hurricane Helene last fall
“Yeah, the loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable, but […] it’s exactly the same as what it was,” McIlroy said. “The hole will play –apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost — it’s pretty much the same.”
McIlroy’s comments illustrate part of what makes the Masters such a unique and challenging event. Even though the best players in the world play Augusta National every year, the club is constantly making changes to parts of the course that require golf to adjust their notes and ga,e plans from from years past.
The hope for Rory is that his early reconnaissance mission will give him a bit of added comfort with the course, as he knows all eyes will be on him the moment he steps foot on the grounds wondering whether it will finally be his year.
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