Mark McMahon is the News Letter's representative out at the Masters. Here's his take ahead of Rory McIlroy's opening round.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to Augusta National, the home of the Masters, where Rory McIlvey is
00:05 once again attempting to complete golf's grand slam, becoming only the 6th man in history
00:10 to complete all four majors. My name is Mark McMahon and I will be providing coverage here
00:16 from Georgia for the newsletter all week. But fingers crossed that Rory can finally
00:21 do it, ending his 10 year wait after his last major victory in 2014.
00:29 Conditions here at the minute, yeah, very cloudy, a lot of rain, threats of thunderstorms
00:36 and because of that there today's start has been delayed. Rory was meant to tee off locally
00:40 here at 10.42 but that has now been pushed back to 2.5 hours to 1.12, 6.12 back in Northern
00:48 Ireland with Scotty Scheffler and Xander Schofle both accompanying him on his first round around
00:56 the famous course here at Augusta. Yeah, Rory, there's a lot of anticipation about him this
01:03 year, a lot of hype, everybody wants to see him complete the grand slam but that there
01:09 comes with an awful lot of pressure as we've seen throughout Rory's past 10 attempts to
01:15 achieve that there goal. It's his 16th visit here to Augusta, he's recorded 7 top 10 finishes,
01:22 4 top 5s so he's definitely got the game to do it but there's a lot of scar tissue there
01:26 from obviously 2011 and obviously going close in previous years and obviously missed the
01:32 cut in 2022 as well. So when things go wrong, they can go wrong for Rory here but when things
01:39 go well he is certainly well up in contention. As I said he's playing with Scotty Scheffler
01:44 today who is the world number 1 and the outstanding favourite to secure a second green jacket.
01:50 Some people suggest that there may inhibit Rory's scheme the first two rounds being accompanied
01:55 by him and Xander Schofle the Olympic champion but at the same time too it should allow Rory
02:00 to settle into proceedings well, see what the rest of the competition are doing and
02:05 take his time, don't be pushing it so soon into his Masters tournament this year. The
02:13 key metric around Augusta, greens and regulations and drives of the team and when Rory has done
02:21 well in those two key metrics that's when he does challenge so there's a lot of hope
02:27 there that Rory's game is in good shape after a third place finish in the Texas Open at
02:31 the weekend just previous. He went to visit Butch Harmon prior to his visit to Augusta,
02:41 again Butch told him a friend of Taggawoods, Taggawoods is his ex-coach and Taggawoods
02:46 is a close friend of Rory's told him to just play his normal game, don't be thinking about
02:50 the pressure and that has led Rory to go into this years tournament with a degree of a term
02:56 of what he says is normalcy, he doesn't want to put too much pressure on it, he's just
03:01 going to play his normal game and forget about the hype that surrounds his presence here.
03:06 That has been related to his arrival here on Tuesday, he's taken this tournament and
03:10 again the other one, hence why he arrived here on Tuesday, took no part in Wednesday's
03:17 chip and putz tournament. So yeah, it's another big day for Rory, round one of the Masters,
03:22 first major of the year and all eyes will be on him. The whole of Northern Ireland will
03:26 be hoping he completes it this year and as I say the newsletter will be here all week
03:31 to ensure that we are here to cover Rory as best we can. I say the weather is not great,
03:39 but you know these are the things you have to deal with in major golf, so Rory is no
03:45 doubt up for the task. Scotty Sheffer is the outstanding favourite, but you know Rory can
03:50 definitely, if he pulls his A game out then we could be celebrating finally completing
03:56 that there Masters trial that we are all desperate to see, Rory in a green jacket. As I say the
04:02 newsletter will be here all week, keep an eye on the newsletter.co.uk website for live
04:08 updates throughout the day and as I say we will be here and keep you well posted on what's
04:13 happening. Take care, bye.