A decade has passed since Rory McIlroy arrived at Augusta National with the chance to become the first man since Tiger Woods to complete a career grand slam.
While the 35-year-old has played plenty of solid golf during that time, the green jacket still evades him.
McIlroy has used various approaches to break through over the years but said Tuesday that he's sticking with the same strategy at the upcoming Masters that he's relied on recently: trying to keep things as toned down as possible.
"I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments I play throughout the year," McIlroy said before he tees it up Thursday for the season's first major, according to ASAP Sports.
"Look, I understand the narrative and the noise, and there's a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year. I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job."
McIlroy has displayed strong form at Augusta National over the last 10 years, finishing in the top 10 a whopping 60% of the time. However, he's reached the point in his career where he's not judged on strong finishes - it's win or bust as far as the fans and media are concerned.
But even if McIlroy hasn't been able to close, he's consistently put himself in a position to win several times in the last couple of years, notably the 2022 Open Championship and the past two U.S. Opens.
Although McIlroy said he plans to treat the Masters like any other tournament, he admitted that he has focused on preparing differently for majors in recent years.
"I made a commitment to myself to sort of earmark these a little bit more and to give a little bit more of myself in these weeks," McIlroy said.
"I think if you see my major record since 2020, COVID was a bit of a weird year, but 2020 up until now compared to, say, the five years previous when I won the PGA in '14, I think you'll see a big difference in that, and that was just sitting down and reflecting at the end of 2019 thinking that I need to approach these a little bit differently again."
McIlroy added a new tournament to this year's schedule in advance of Augusta, opting to play in the Houston Open two weeks after claiming his second Players Championship.
"If this week wasn't the week that it was, I'd probably take those three weeks off, but I knew that I needed to at least have one more competitive week leading in here," McIlroy said. "I opted for Houston rather than San Antonio just to change it up. More than anything else, bit of a change of scenery. But that was really it."
Will that change help spur him on to get that coveted green jacket and become the first European to win the career grand slam? We'll find out Sunday afternoon.
