McIlroy, who became the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam by winning his first green jacket, began practice rounds over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first few days it\u2019s all about enjoying the perks,\u201d said McIlroy. \u201cBut once Tuesday night is over, the serious business begins. There\u2019s a mental change where I\u2019m focused on the play and hopefully winning another Masters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old world No 2 from Northern Ireland is trying to join Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only back-to-back Masters winners.<\/p>\n
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler has not competed since sharing 22nd at the Players Championship three weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, welcomed their second child, son Remy, on March 27, and the entire family is in Augusta this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been fun,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n
Scheffler won his first event of the year at January\u2019s American Express before completing a run of 18 PGA top-10 finishes.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old American, a two-time Masters champion, won last year\u2019s British Open and PGA Championship and can complete a career Grand Slam at June\u2019s US Open.<\/p>\n
The field of 91, including 46 from outside the United States, will not feature five-time Masters winner Woods or three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson. Both are absent for the first time since 1994, Mickelson because of family health issues and Woods on a break for treatment after being arrested on a DUI charge last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pulling for him as a human being, forget his golf,\u201d two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson said of Woods. \u201cAnybody that\u2019s struggling with anything, I feel for him because I\u2019ve went through a lot of mental stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing but love for him and hopefully he can come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 and 2024 US Open winner, won LIV Golf titles last month at Singapore and South Africa. He was sixth at the Masters in 2024 and fifth last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always passion out here. I\u2019ve been trying to win this event for a lot of years,\u201d said DeChambeau, making his 10th Masters start. \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot of lessons and hopefully my game is in the place where I can finally win it this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy swing is in a great place. Putting is in a great place. Chipping is in a great place. I just want that iron play to be stellar this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Rahm, the 2023 Masters and 2021 US Open champion, won the 2024 and 2025 LIV Golf season crowns. The 31-year-old Spaniard captured his third LIV title last month in Hong Kong and has runner-up efforts this year at South Africa, Adelaide and Riyadh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to get that \u2018back to Augusta\u2019 feeling. It\u2019s important,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cI\u2019m really happy with all areas of my game … I can be happy without being satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McIlroy, who became the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam by winning his first green jacket,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,192557,95,121016,6028,45609,3029,1888,6758,18480,661,58253,38594,111,139,69,10521,52871,38639,35138,192555,192554,192556,213,46849,165,1865,71155,17450,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-366989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-2246","9":"tag-90th","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-augusta","12":"tag-champion","13":"tag-defending","14":"tag-eye","15":"tag-first","16":"tag-glory","17":"tag-golfers","18":"tag-major","19":"tag-masters","20":"tag-mcilroy","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-opening","25":"tag-practice","26":"tag-prepared","27":"tag-rory","28":"tag-scheffler","29":"tag-scottie","30":"tag-shotmaking","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-tested","33":"tag-their","34":"tag-today","35":"tag-topranked","36":"tag-worlds","37":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}