'It's Just Narratives. It's Noise' - Rory McIlroy Plays Down Expectation Of Claiming Maiden Masters Title

Rory McIlroy is preparing for his 17^th appearance at The Masters, but despite some close calls through the years, he is yet to wear the Green Jacket.

The 35-year-old is also now approaching 11 years since his fourth and most recent Major title, which came at the PGA Championship in August 2014.

That barren run aside, McIlroy has remained one of the most consistent and impressive golfers of his era, with many still predicting that it is a matter of when and not if he finally conquers Augusta National to complete his career Grand Slam.

If anything, the expectations of that happening this year are as high as ever, with McIlroy heading to the event on the back of a brilliant start to 2025 that has already seen him win two titles, at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship.

However, despite the weight of expectation on his shoulders, he insists that his preparation is no different than previous years. McIlroy told reporters at Augusta National ahead of his latest bid for glory: “No. It's just narratives. It's noise. 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.

“Look, I understand the narrative and the noise, and there's a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job.”

'I've Shown Quite A Lot Of Resilience From Setbacks'

The closest McIlroy has come to a fifth Major win in recent times was a heartbreaking runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at last year’s US Open. As McIlroy has done many times in the past, he bounced back from that disappointment in style, and that’s something he admitted he’s proud of.

He said: “Yeah, I think over the course of my career I think I've showed quite a lot of resilience from setbacks, and I feel like I've done the same again, especially post-June last year and the golf that I've played since then, and it's something that I'm really proud of.

“Look, you have setbacks and you have disappointments, but as long as you can learn from them and move forward and try to put those learnings into practice I feel like is very, very important.

“I feel like I've showed that quite a lot over the course of my career. Look, when you have a long career like I have had, luckily, you sort of just learn to roll with the punches, the good times, the bad times, knowing that if you do the right work and you practice the right way, that those disappointments will turn into good times again pretty soon.”

'You Dust Yourself Off And You Go Again'

But how does McIlroy always manage to recover so well from setbacks? He revealed it’s down to being more prepared to face disappointment than in the past.

“At a certain point in someone's life, someone doesn't want to fall in love because they don't want to get their heart broken,” he explained. “People, I think, instinctually as human beings we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that's a conscious decision or subconscious decision, and I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years.

“But I think once you go through that, 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.

“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.”

'Were On A Bit Of A Bridgerton Kick This Week'

Nevertheless, The Masters is arguably McIlroy’s biggest test of the year, so how is he spending his downtime? He explained: “I've gotten into Bridgerton the last - I didn't think I would. I was very against watching it, but Erica convinced me. So we're on a bit of a Bridgerton kick this week, yeah.”

It’s not just the popular period drama that has got McIlroy hooked – he’s also had his head in a book. Previously, McIlroy has revealed he has read a lot of books on stoicism, but this week it’s fiction that has caught his interest. He explained: “I, for the first time in a long time, am reading a novel. I actually got some fiction into my life. It's a John Grisham book.”

But which one? “The Reckoning." It's got off to a pretty good start.”