How the right jacket and a Coke Zero add up to refreshed Rory McIlroy mindset for major goals - 'it took me a while to get to that point'
Rory McIlroy is embracing the small wins as Masters champion in the belief it can lead to big gains now stepping on to the course aware “it's easier for me to make those swings and not worry”.
Fears the extra weight this week of wearing the green jacket might impact McIlroy’s start to a first title defence were dismissed on Thursday with a share of the leaderboard lead and five-under-par 67 to mark his best Augusta start in 15 years.
Now he enters the run-in aware of the potential for scoring highs and lows along the remaining rounds’ shot ups and downs but with the goal another super Sunday and place as the fourth man in golf history to secure back-to-back Masters honours.
And the Northern Ireland legend has highlighted advantages beyond this week as he kicks off the majors season in Georgia aware of three more high-stakes adventures on the horizon across the calendar year.
“I would say the big thing is I still have high expectations of myself,” he said of the mindset difference before and after last April’s milestone triumph. "But my expectations are more ‘Did I make good decisions today? Was I committed? Was I trusting?’ It wasn't my expectations of ‘I'm going to go out and shoot 65 and did I do it?’
“It took me a while to get to that point where, if I focus on the process and the little mini-goals of not compounding errors...hitting it in trees and trying to be a hero, making good decisions, thinking my way around the golf course.
"Those are the expectations I have for myself and if I can live up to those expectations, then the scores and the results should take care of itself...I guess that's a long-winded way of saying not really focusing on the outcome but focusing on all the little things you have to do to, hopefully, have that outcome take care of itself.
“That's just a learning curve that you have to go through.”
Having revealed past pressure in pursuit of that elusive Masters reward, McIlroy – on his 18th career run around Augusta – accepts a viewpoint still driven by desire but relaxed around the process.
“It's easier for me to make those swings and not worry about where it goes,” he said. “I know that I can go to the Champions’ Locker Room and put my green jacket on and have a Coke Zero at the end of the day.”