McIlroy hoping to continue good start at Masters as omens look good

Fri, 06 Apr, 2018 - 17:00

Rory McIlroy will be hoping for a good start as he tees off his second round at the US Masters in his bid to complete a career Grand Slam.

He is just three shots off the leader Jordan Spieth after the first round at Augusta.

This is the only one of the four "majors" that McIlroy hasn't won.

.@McIlroyRory is T4.

The last four times he was inside the top 5 after Round 1 of a major?

🏆
🏆
🏆
🏆 pic.twitter.com/hJKI2snbxR
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 6, 2018

The omens could hardly have been better for McIlroy as he looked to strengthen his bid for the career grand slam on day two of the 82nd Masters.

McIlroy broke 70 in the first round at Augusta National for just the second time on Thursday, a three-under-par 69 leaving the four-time major winner in a share of fourth, three shots behind leader Jordan Spieth.

And the last four times McIlroy was in the top five after the first round of a major he went on to win it, the 28-year-old claiming the 2011 US Open, the US PGA Championship in 2012 and 2014 and the 2014 Open Championship.

The biggest stumbling block between McIlroy joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in winning all four majors was unsurprisingly Spieth, whose opening 66 means he has amazingly led or shared the lead after nine of his 17 rounds at Augusta.

Spieth led after the third round in 2014, from start to finish in 2015 and for 54 holes in defence of his title, although he did then blow a five-shot lead with nine holes to play as Danny Willett took full advantage with a closing 67.

"Jordan had a pretty strong finish but this is my best start in a few

years," said McIlroy, who shot an opening 65 in 2011 but squandered a four-shot lead with a nightmare final round of 80.

"It's such a hard golf course to play catch-up on. If you start to chase it around here, that's when you start to make mistakes. But to be right up there and have the ability to stay patient, because of the position I'm in, that's a nice luxury I have over the next few days.

"I drove it well. Everything was really solid. And if I can continue to play

like that over the next three days, I'll be pretty close."

We will be providing updates from Augusta throughout the evening.