Rory McIlroy and caddie, J.P Fitzgerald
The 2011 PGA Tour season has thrown up many new names and ahead of the Masters it is hard to find any of the "big guns" with any form worth noting as we head into this year’s trip down Magnolia Lane. Indeed for Tiger Woods the gap since his last PGA Tour victory now stretches ever closer to 15 months, with his last Masters win now back in 2005, in a year in which “red shirt Sunday” has failed to deter the arrival of new names - Jonathan Byrd, Mark Wilson, Jhonattan Vegas, D.A. Points, Aaron Baddeley, Rory Sabbatini and Nick Watney – all of whom have been winners so far this season.
At the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February, his last European Tour event, Woods looked to be back into the groove until the final day when a round of 75 undid the momentum of Saturday and left him sharing 20th place with Raphael Jacquelin and Sergio Garcia. Since his return Stateside the game has also ebbed and flowed with the last round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational ending his chances following a double bogey on the last - which left him signing for an average 72.
Up ahead the winning score came from Martin Laird, who is only a second time PGA Tour winner, after the Scot held his nerve to see 75 prove enough when late charges by Steve Marino, Justin Rose, Marc Leishman and David Toms all hit trouble. Having been eliminated in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play in February at Dove Mountain by Edoardo Molinari - 3 and 2 - Laird travels more comfortably to Augusta having received the trophy from Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill last Sunday.
Last year Woods arrived at The Masters with no tournament preparation yet finished fourth, with KJ Choi, after four under par rounds. Knowing his history around Augusta National it would be unwise perhaps to write him off this year, given he has shown glimpses of form at times.
US Open winner, Graham McDowell will arrive in Augusta more mindful than in any recent event after his opening round of 80 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill saw him miss the cut. The last time he carded a similar score was at The Open at Royal Birkdale, which harks back to another era in the life of GMAC, when Harrington was sealing his 3rd Major title, as in the past 12 months the Portrush golfer has won the US Open, The Ryder Cup, beaten Tiger at the Chevron World Challenge in December and secured the number 4 spot in the World Golf Rankings.
“Golf can be a humbling game sometimes but that's part of its intrigue,” he tweeted last week. “The second you start taking anything for granted, it bites you.”
Last year, he also missed the cut at Bay Hill and weeks alter also failed to make the weekend at The Masters.
"It's disappointing, really," he explained at Bay Hill "Not exactly what I had in mind and 80 is pretty awful stuff.
"It's a good thing really, a reality check for me. I've got to get my ass in gear and start working hard. Not that I haven't been working hard, but I really have to get my focus back a little bit -- focus on what I'm doing as opposed to all the other crap going on around me right now."
"I'm not very happy with the way I am swinging the club and my iron game is very out of control. It's not like me. Six weeks ago, I had it on a string.
Padraig Harrington crosses the Atlantic for another time this year in his recently acquired 13-seater Gulfstream G3 for sixth Shell Houston Open which will be the final event before the Masters next week in Augusta - in what forms part of the Dubliner's traditional preparations for Georgia - by playing at the Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course in Humble, Texas.
Last year Harrington opened with two rounds of 69 but finished with a final day 77 that dropped him down the field to 45th place and eleven strokes behind the winner, Anthony Kim
Rory McIroy’s last outing was the WGC-Cadillac Championship at The Blue Monster at Doral where a final round of 74 was really the only complaint, finishing in a share of 10th place in an event that was won by Nick Watney.
The former amateur world number one turned professional at the age of 18 and within two years was ranked inside the world's top 10, due partly to respective joint 10th and joint third finishes at the 2009 US Open and PGA Championship. The feeling that the Ulsterman is a major winner in waiting was strengthened by his consistency in WGC events - four top-10 finishes in seven WGC stroke play appearances - after he was one putt away from joining Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer in a play-off after sharing the lead for much of the final round. His length of the tee and fearless attacking of greens makes him a threat at Augusta.
So far this season McIlroy would have hoped for better results after finishing last season so strongly. A second place at the Abu Dhabi Championship - albeit eight strokes behind Kaymer - promised much. However, McIlroy has since developed a habit for ending tournaments badly having carded a final round 74 at the Dubai Desert Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
This will be McIlroy’s third appearance at the Masters and follows on from a missed cut at last year’s event. In 2009 when playing his first event at Augusta, a 19 year old, McIlory caused an uproar by smoothing the sand after a bad bunker shot on the Friday. After the rules committee got involved, there was talk of disqualification and he found himself the focus of attention at his first Masters - for all the wrong reasons.
"It wasn't a tantrum," McIlroy said at the time, "In the rules it says a kick, and a kick is when you take your foot out of the sand and back in. A smoothing of the sand is what I did. I might have done it a little vigorously, but that was my intent. It wasn't my intent to test the sand."
This year McIlroy will be hoping for attention of a different kind. Preferably about five o’clock on the Sunday afternoon.
