Masters ‘wake-up call’ helping McIlroy’s PGA tilt

Rory McIlroy says missing the cut at the Masters provided him with a little “wake-up call” as he prepares for this week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill.

“I was never so sure I was going to have a great week at Augusta and then that happened,” McIlroy told BBC Sport.

“The night before, I felt so good, but the game can bring you back down to earth pretty quickly.”

The world number three added: “It was a great lesson to me to not put too much into feelings or vibes.

“I shot five under on the back nine on Wednesday afternoon [in practice] and everything was in a good spot, but that’s golf.

“The best way is to not let yourself get to that level of expectation. I need to have a little more acceptance.

“When I think back to Augusta and the past few months, my level of acceptance wasn’t where it needs to be. If I work on that, I know I’ll play some good golf again.”

McIlroy had good reason to go into the Masters in such confident fashion given he had won the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup in October to return to the top of the world rankings and followed that with victory in the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour in January of this year.

He then finished joint second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and third in the WGC Match Play during March.

However, between those two events he missed the cut at the PGA Tour’s flagship Players Championship. He has spoken about how spending too much time during that period in meetings about LIV Golf and the future of the American tour period affected his game.

“They say embrace the struggle,” he continued. “I’m not saying I’m struggling a lot, I had a chance to win Bay Hill, I had a chance to win the Match Play and it was only six weeks ago, so it’s not like this has been a long-term thing.

“It gives you a purpose to go to the range and work on things. Sometimes, success can bring complacency and having little wake-up calls along the way can be a good thing.”