Rory McIlroy can win Masters provided he can overcome mental obstacles: Paul McGinley & Nick Faldo
Paul McGinley has predicted Rory McIlroy’s chances of finally landing the Green Jacket and ending his wait for major glory will be aided by working with mental coach Dr Bob Rotella.
The Northern Irishman goes into next week’s Masters (April 10-13) knowing that if he tops the leaderboard come the end of play, then he will become only just the sixth man in history to win all four of golf's modern Majors.
McIlroy has failed to land any of the sport’s biggest prizes since 2014 but will arrive at Augusta with two wins already this year on the PGA Tour.
"Eleven years is a hell of a long time for a player of his quality," McGinley said in a conference call promoting NBC's coverage of next week’s Masters.
"Rory's coming at things in a slightly different way now, based on all the experiences he's had of not being primed on Monday, being primed on Thursday morning.
"There's a plan going on behind the scenes. I believe he's up again this week in Augusta. He may even be there today. He was there last week and he's had so many runs at this.
"The difficulty is navigating all the pressure, the expectation, the press conferences, not bringing too much attention on himself, as much as he can deflect it, trying to get into a really calm head space
“He doesn't need to over practice up there. He knows the golf course well. I would say there'll be a lot of practice going on this week as there was last week but like a boxer going into a fight, he’ll taper it off as he gets closer to the Thursday morning.
"And so I really do think that having Bob Rotella on his shoulder is a really important influence. There's nobody who's worked with more Major champions as a coach than Bob has done.
"Rory's biggest challenge is the mental one, and dealing with the baggage that comes with not just knocking off a Major championship for the first time in 11 years, but also trying to complete a Grand Slam."
Meanwhile, Sir Nick Faldo told the Sky Sports Golf Podcast that McIlroy can be successful at Augusta – provided he “clears all the pictures out from the past” after previous heartache in the Majors.
He added: "He [McIlroy] is looking very good. Golf, for me, there's three main departments when you're assessing anyone - there's physical, technical, and mental, isn't it?
"Physical, we can just about see. You can see how strong somebody is, but you can't see an injury. Technical, we can just about see it - you see the swing and what have you. Mental, we can't see it and that's purely hidden to the individual.
"For Rory? Physically, he's got it. Technically, he's got it. Where is he mentally? That is the key. He has got the battle of trying to delete 10 years of this gap and saying to us 'I'm actually the best player in the world right now'. Because, let's face it, he is."