Such is the size of the task ahead of McIlroy, it comes as little surprise that the players who have done it are three of the finest to have ever graced this beautiful sport.<\/p>\n
More surprisingly, perhaps, is the manner in which he has decided to prepare for the 90th renewal of the Masters Tournament.<\/p>\n
McIlroy hasn\u2019t hit a competitive shot since tapping in for final-round 71 at The Players Championship<\/a> that moved him up into a share of 44th on March 15. He has decided he will not tee up again until he steps out of Augusta\u2019s Champions Locker Room on April 9.<\/p>\n And it seems it\u2019s not a decision made due to the back problem that saw him pull out midway through the Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a>. McIlroy seemed in good shape at Sawgrass having, in his own words, \u201crecovered pretty quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n Like this article? See more TG content in your feed!\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to add Today\u2019s Golfer as a preferred source on Google.<\/p>\n But this is McIlroy\u2019s outlook now. At the end of 2025, he said he wanted to be a bit more selective<\/a> about the tournaments he played, and explore the world a bit while doing it. Indeed, in recent months he has played in India for the first time, as well as teeing up at the Australian Open for the first time in more than a decade. <\/p>\n And he doesn\u2019t need to burn any unnecessary energy in what will be an intense week for him as the defending champion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty light start to the season,\u201d he said in a press conference that started with him revealing his Champions Dinner menu<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was nice to get four rounds at The Players. It would have been nice to get those two extra rounds at Bay Hill, but I\u2019m really pleased with how my body responded to that little setback and decide to put some good work in here at home over the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n McIlroy says he will \u201cmake a few trips up to Augusta National to play, as well\u201d. <\/p>\n But, crucially, it means, McIlroy will take a three-week break ahead of the Masters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since The Players\u2019 move to March in 2019, McIlroy has entered at least one tournament between the Sawgrass and Augusta showpieces. Prior to that, the WGC-Match Play sat between the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Masters. And before that, there was some fine-tuning trips to Texas.<\/p>\n In fact, you have to go back to 2012 to find the last time McIlroy had this much time off before the drive down Magnolia Lane\u2026<\/p>\n YEARTOURNAMENTFINISHWEEKS OFFMASTERS RESULT2025Houston OpenT5112024Texas Open30T222023WGC-Match Play31MC2022Texas OpenMC022021WGC-Match PlayT281MC2020Zozo ChampionshipT172T52019WGC-Match PlayT92T212018WGC-Match PlayT361T52017WGC-Match Play32T72016WGC-Match Play42T102015Arnold Palmer InvitationalT11242014Houston OpenT70T82013Texas Open20T252012WGC-Cadillac Championship33T40<\/p>\n The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the three-week break before the Masters resulted in his worst finish at Augusta \u2013 in years that he made the cut. And the two times he did miss it, it can\u2019t be a coincidence that he had also failed to make the weekend at The Players Championship.<\/p>\n But it doesn\u2019t matter a jot for McIlroy\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m obviously really excited to get to the week of the tournament and defend,\u201d he added. \u201cBut I know defending the Masters Tournament is a pretty rare feat.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that I would love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n After everything McIlroy\u2019s been through at Augusta National, you wouldn\u2019t put it past him.<\/p>\n Back Rory McIlroy to defend his Masters title with VirginBet VirginBet are offering 9\/1<\/a> for Rory McIlroy to successfully pull on the Green Jacket for a successive year.<\/p>\n That puts him second favorite behind two-time champion Scottie Scheffler at 19\/5<\/a> and ahead of 2023 winner Jon Rahm at 12\/1<\/a>. <\/p>\n Making up the top-5 are Bryson DeChambeau and Ludvig Aberg, who are both priced at 14\/1<\/a>. Both would be first-time champions, but have fine recent form at Augusta.<\/p>\n Bet on the Masters now on the VirginBet website<\/a> or via their app<\/a> now!<\/p>\n Prices are subject to change. Please gamble responsibly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can Rory McIlroy defend his Green Jacket at Augusta? He has history against him \u2013 in more ways…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-488165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"VirginBet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/virginbet-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n