The Masters 2025: Rory McIlroy on Grand Slam hopes and bid for elusive major win at Augusta National
Rory McIlroy is searching for his first major win since 2014 PGA Championship; McIlroy needs victory at The Masters to become first player since Tiger Woods to complete the career Grand Slam; Watch the opening round live on Thursday from 2pm on Sky Sports Golf
Tuesday 8 April 2025 22:09, UK
Rory McIlroy insists he is ready to "block out the noise" and bounce back from past major "heartbreaks" ahead of his latest bid to complete the career Grand Slam at The Masters.
McIlroy, a four-time major champion, requires a victory to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nickalus and Tiger Woods as the only players in the modern era to win all four majors.
The world No 2 has 21 major top-10s without victory since his 2014 PGA Championship success, with McIlroy's bid to complete the career Grand Slam - an annual talking point - at Augusta National now entering an 11th season.
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McIlroy has already won twice on the PGA Tour this year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players, leading to suggestions that this could be his best chance yet - in his 17th appearance at The Masters - to claim the elusive major required for the Grand Slam.
"It's just narratives, it's noise," McIlroy said in his pre-tournament press conference. "It's just trying to block out that noise as much as possible. I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year.
"I understand the narrative and the noise. There's a lot of anticipation and build-up coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job."
McIlroy has come close to adding to his major tally over the past decade, narrowly missing out on victory at The 150th Open in St Andrews in 2022 before finishing runner-up at the US Open in each of the past two seasons.
"Once you go through those heartbreaks, as I call them, or disappointments, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you're like 'yeah, life goes on, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be'," McIlroy added.
"It's going through those times, especially in recent memory, where the last few years I've had chances to win some of the biggest golf tournaments in the world and it hasn't quite happened. But life moves on. You dust yourself off and you go again.
"I think that's why I've become a little more comfortable in laying everything out there and being somewhat vulnerable at times."
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McIlroy followed his victory at The Players last month by finishing tied-fifth at the Texas Children's Houston Open, with the Northern Irishman revealing that the elbow issue affecting him in Houston is now "all good" ahead of his major push.
He has also taken two scouting missions to Augusta National ahead of this year's major, where he will be looking to build on his seven previous top-10s at The Masters and challenge for victory.
"Feeling good," McIlroy explained. "It's been a nice way to start the year with the two victories at Pebble Beach and Sawgrass. Had a decent showing last time out when I played in Houston a couple of weeks ago.
"Had a good weekend and then I've had a couple of visits up here [Augusta]. Very glad to do that, especially with the weather yesterday. So yeah, it's been a really good sort of lead-in to it.
"Spent a week at home and had Michael Bannon over, and we were doing some practice and played quite a bit of golf and tried to stay as sharp as I could. It's been a good week and obviously looking forward to getting this thing going on Thursday."
When is The Masters live on Sky Sports?
Sky Sports Golf will be showing record hours of live coverage from the 2025 contest, including more action over the final two rounds than previous years. Wall-to-wall coverage from the tournament begins at 2pm on Thursday, with Featured Group action and regular updates until the global broadcast window begins at 8pm.
The same timings will apply on Friday, while a new addition to this year's coverage sees a Masters build-up show live from 3pm over the weekend ahead of full coverage starting at 5pm, covering all the action until after the close of play.
Sky+, Sky Q and Sky Glass will provide plenty of bonus feeds and allow you to follow players' progress through various parts of Augusta's famous layout, including Amen Corner and more.
Who will win The Masters? Watch throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage of the opening round begins with Featured Groups on Thursday from 2pm on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.
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