McIlroy faces anxious wait as he bids to end run of bad starts at Masters
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland speaks to members of the media in a pre-event press conference during practice round 2 at Augusta National Golf Club, Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
Rory McIlroy faces an anxious wait to begin his bid for the career Grand Slam after being drawn in the penultimate group for the opening round of the Masters Tournament on Thursday.
Making his ninth bid to become just the sixth player after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods to win all four Majors, the world number two will go out with young Korean sensation Tom Kim and recent WGC-Dell Technologies winner Sam Burns at 1:48 pm (1848 Irish time) on the opening day.
McIlroy has made slow starts to his last four Masters, opening with rounds of 73, 75, 76 and 73 to leave himself with a mountain to climb and he knows he needs to make a steadier start this time.
Since 2005, only one player -- Tiger Woods in 2005 and 2019 -- has been outside the top 10 after the first round and gone on to win the Masters.
"Excluding the back nine on Sunday with some of the hole locations, I think it's a very difficult course to chase on," McIlroy said. "You start to fire at pins and short-siding yourself and you're missing in the wrong spots, it's hard to make up a lot of ground.
"You know, once you get off to a good start, you can -- you know, what's the biggest thing here in Augusta? Greens in regulation, hitting greens. If you get off to a good start, it's way easier to get into that mindset when you've been off to a fast start.
"Yeah, say you shoot a couple over that first day, then you start having to chase just to make the cut or try to get yourself back in the tournament, that's when this golf course can really sort of step up and bite you. I think that's part of the reason."
Honorary starters Gary Player,Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson will hit the ceremonial opening tee shots at 1240 Irish time before Malone amateur Matt McClean get the Irish challenge underway with 2000 winner Vijay Singh and world number 66 Scott Stallings at 1312 Irish time.
Shane Lowry has been handed a LIV Golf rebel for his first two rounds as he goes off with Belgium's Thomas Pieters, who recently defected to the Saudi-backed league, and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes at 1436 Irish time.
West Waterford's Seamus Power is in the very next group at 1448 with another LIV Golf rebel, two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and Latin American Amateur Championship winner Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira from Argentina.
Five-time winner Tiger Woods goes off with the promising Norwegian Viktor Hovland and world number seven Xander Schauffele while world number three Jon Rahm plays alongside American stars Justin Thomas and Cameron Young.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is out just ahead of McIlroy with Max Homa, and amateur Sam Bennett while 2015 winner Jordan Spieth is in the last group of the day on Thursday with Tommy Fleetwood and Tony Finau.
Masters Tournament, Tee-times (US unless stated, *denotes amateur)
All times Irish time
Thursday (Friday)
12:40 Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson (Honorary Starters)
1300 (1606) Mike Weir (Canada), Kevin Na
1312 (1618) Vijay Singh (Fiji), Scott Stallings, *Matthew McClean (N. Ireland)
1324 (1630) Sandy Lyle (Scotland), Jason Kokrak, Talor Gooch
1336 (1642) Fred Couples, Russell Henley, Alex Noren (Sweden)
1348 (1654) Adrian Meronk (Poland), Kevin Kisner, Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa)
1400 (1712) Larry Mize, Min Woo Lee (Australia), *Harrison Crowe (Australia)
1412 (1724) Sergio Garcia (Spain), Kazuki Higa (Japan), Keith Mitchell
1424 (1736) Patrick Reed, Adam Svensson (Canada), Sahith Theegala
1436 (1748) Shane Lowry (Ireland), Mackenzie Hughes (Canada), Thomas Pieters (Belgium)
1448 (1800) Bubba Watson, Seamus Power (Ireland), *Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (Argentina)
1506 (1812) Abraham Ancer (Mexico), Chris Kirk, Keegan Bradley
1518 (1824) Tiger Woods, Viktor Hovland (Norway), Xander Schauffele
1530 (1836) Adam Scott (Australia), Patrick Cantlay, Kurt Kitayama
1542 (1848) Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm (Spain), Cameron Young
1554 (1900) Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Cameron Smith (Australia), Sungjae Im (Korea)
1606 (1300) Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Cameron Champ
1618 (1312) Charl Schwartzel (South Africa), Taylor Moore, *Aldrich Potgieter (South Africa)
1630 (1324) J. T. Poston, Francesco Molinari (Italy), Bryson DeChambeau
1642 (1336) Bernhard Langer (Germany), Mito Pereira (Chile), *Ben Carr
1654 (1348) Danny Willett (England), Gary Woodland, Brooks Koepka
1712 (1400) Sepp Straka (Austria), Harold Varner III, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Korea)
1724 (1412) Phil Mickelson, Tom Hoge, Si Woo Kim (Korea)
1736 (1424) Billy Horschel, Harris English, Ryan Fox (New Zealand)
1748 (1436) Zach Johnson, Jason Day (Australia), *Gordon Sargent
1800 (1448) Brian Harman, Joaquin Niemann (Chile), Tyrrell Hatton (England)
1812 (1506) Dustin Johnson, Corey Conners (Canada), Justin Rose (England)
1824 (1518) Matthew Fitzpatrick (England), Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris
1836 (1530) Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, *Sam Bennett
1848 (1542) Tom Kim (Korea), Rory McIlroy (N. Ireland), Sam Burns
1900 (1554) Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood (England), Tony Finau.
