Rory McIlroy confirms what he did on the driving range on Saturday night at The Masters

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Rory McIlroy’s second consecutive victory at The Masters did not come without its challenges over the weekend.

McIlroy built a six-shot lead in his first two rounds, but it had disappeared after a one-over-par 73 on Saturday.

The Northern Irishman suddenly lost all confidence in his game, as he was missing his targets by wide margins.

Thankfully for McIlroy, he managed to solve his problems on the driving range at Augusta National on Saturday night.

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Rory McIlroy fixed his third-round issues on the driving range at Augusta

While McIlroy’s driving was inconsistent throughout all four rounds, his iron play was better on Sunday than it was on Saturday.

He emphasised hitting cut shots on the range to prevent him from overdrawing the ball as he had in the third round.

This certainly helped on Sunday, as his approach shots were generally more controlled and gave him fewer problems.

“My path was just getting a little bit too far to the right with every club in the bag,” McIlroy explained. “So I was just hitting too much of a draw.

“Then, when the path is coming from that far inside, if you don’t keep your body moving at all, the ball is just going to go dead left.

“So I focused on hitting quite a few cut shots, focused on really trying to open up my lower body through impact. When I do that, it helps me stabilize the club face and start the ball more on line, with a more neutral flight.

“That was really the feel that I tried to get last night, and that was the feel I brought into today. Starting at the 1st hole, I hit some much better iron shots.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of McIlroy‘s success is that he did not even have his A-game over the weekend at Augusta.

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Rory McIlroy names the most stressful moment in his final round at The Masters

Anyone who follows golf will know that supporting McIlroy in major championships is like a rollercoaster.

Even when he plays at his best – which he did not this week – he always finds a way to make life more difficult than it needs to be.

McIlroy has now named the two most nerve-wracking moments during his resilient final-round performance at The Masters.

“I’d say walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was,” he said. “I think that was the moment of greatest stress. It could go anywhere. It could be anywhere.

“There were a few others. I thought my second putt on 11 was huge to avoid making bogey there. That green, I felt, was a lot slower than the rest of the greens this week, just because it was new and definitely had different characteristics in terms of the slopes are so different than what they used to be.

“Cam and I both left our putts short there, but I held a really good second putt, which was a big point in the day, I felt.”

Read more:

• Donald Trump sends message to Rory McIlroy as he wins The Masters again
• Cam Young suggests what it was like to play with Rory McIlroy at Augusta after Bryson DeChambeau’s complaints last year
• Tyrrell Hatton gives his feelings on Rory McIlroy winning The Masters for the second time running