Rory McIlroy confirmed some blistering kind in a closing 64 within the Texas Kids’s Houston Open however revealed he nonetheless must deal with an elbow niggle and fine-tune his sport to be prepared for the Masters.
The world quantity two went into the ultimate spherical eight pictures behind Min Woo Lee, however whereas he bookended his spherical with bogeys, he made an eagle and 6 birdies in between to tie for fifth on 15-under, 5 pictures behind the Australian.
“Look, it was a great week,” stated McIlroy, who addressed his issues off the tee by taking loft off his driver on Saturday night.
“I nonetheless really feel like I’ve bought some stuff to work on, however total, a stable week and good to have one other week to prepare and fine-tune my sport going to Augusta.”
He added: “I nonetheless do not suppose my sport is 100pc below the management I need. However it’s good to have every week to work on some issues.”
McIlroy, who made eight threes in a row in the midst of his spherical, will meet up with coach Michael Bannon on Monday.
However he’s additionally bought a bodily drawback to deal with earlier than he is prepared for an additional tilt at that elusive inexperienced jacket
“My proper elbow’s been bothering me slightly bit, so possibly simply get some remedy on that and be sure that that is okay going into Augusta,” he stated
“I’ve bought my coach, Michael Bannon, coming in tomorrow. We’ll do some work. And, you recognize, be sure that every part’s in good condition for every week’s time.”
Elaborating on his plans, he stated: “It is nearly feeling as snug as I might be with the issues I have been engaged on, which is iron play, wedges, clearly, brief sport is basically, actually essential round Augusta as properly.
“So I’ll work on these issues over the following few days, and hopefully I am feeling good entering into there,”
After making a refined change to his gear, he definitely feels higher about his driving after struggling at instances earlier within the week and in his Gamers Championship win.
“I simply took slightly little bit of loft off it,” he stated. “I felt prefer it was getting slightly bit spinny, particularly if I needed to hit cuts off the tee.
“It undoubtedly went by means of the wind higher in the present day, and felt slightly extra snug with it leaving right here and going in the direction of Augusta.”
McIlroy began too far again to noticeably threaten in a single day chief Lee, who ultimately needed to battle off Gary Woodland and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler to win his maiden PGA Tour title by a shot on 20-under.
The Australian turned in two-under to steer Woodland by three pictures.
However after extending his result in 5 pictures with birdies on the twelfth and thirteenth, he sliced his tee shot right into a lake on the sixteenth and went to the final with only a shot to spare over Scheffler and Woodland, who shot respective rounds of 63 and 62 to set the goal at 19-under.
The Australian proved equal to the duty, and with Shane Lowry’s former caddie Brian “Bo” Martin on his bag, he safely parred the final to shoot 67, placing useless after overshooting the inexperienced.
On the LPGA Tour, Hyo Joo Kim got here from 4 pictures off the lead and carded an eight-under 64 to drive a playoff earlier than defeating Lilia Vu with a six-footer for birdie on the primary additional gap within the Ford Championship in Arizona.
Leona Maguire shot 74 to complete tied 68th on three-under.
