'The Loss Of A Few Trees Is Definitely Noticeable' - Rory McIlroy On What He Learned From Augusta National Practice Round Ahead Of 2025 Masters

Rory McIlroy heads to The Masters in two weeks time as second-favorite behind defending champion Scottie Scheffler, where the Northern Irishman will make his 11th attempt at completing the career grand slam.

McIlroy has been at Augusta National this week to "refamiliarize" himself with the course and have a quiet practice round away from the cameras and patrons.

The 35-year-old spoke to media ahead of the Texas Children's Houston Open, where he explained that he enjoys heading to Augusta early to avoid feeling rushed during Masters week.

"Not really. I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens," he said when asked if anything stood out from his visit.

"Apart from that, honestly for me, it's nice to play a practice round without people around and it sort of takes the pressure off the start of the week for me.

"There's a lot of obligations, there's big commitments whether it be from media or the par-3 tournament on Wednesday.

"I just like to get up there and feel like I'm not rushed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the week of the tournament and that's usually the reason I go there."

The World No.2 revealed that Augusta National has four new greens this year and a thinning of the trees is noticeable after last September's devastating Hurricane Helene.

One of those greens that has been rebuilt is on the par 3 16th after pine trees fell onto the surface during the Hurricane.

"There's four greens that are new this year that they've redone. You just sort of, you have a look at those and see if there's any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that," he said.

"Yeah, the loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable, but in terms of like they've had to redo that green [the 16th] but it's exactly the same as what it was.

"Apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost, but apart from that, it's pretty much the same."

McIlroy makes his first start since his second Players Championship win two weeks ago, where he defeated JJ Spaun in a three-hole aggregate playoff on the Monday. He says Augusta is on his mind this week but he's focused on trying to win his 29th PGA Tour title in Houston.

"I just want to get a card in my hand and shoot scores and hopefully get myself in contention and try to win another golf tournament," he said.

"It's not as if I'm playing here this week and thinking about two weeks' time. I'm here, I'm in the present, I'm trying to do my best this week and trying to win this golf tournament.

"I think just competitive reps. I'm obviously playing well, I want to keep playing well, so I think every round you play where you see good things you're sort of filling up that confidence bucket a little bit, so I want to see that.

"It was great to get a win a couple weeks ago but I still feel I could have played a lot better. I tried to poke holes in a lot of my game last week and think about things I could do better, and there were definitely things that I could work on or do better.

"It's a good opportunity to go out and see if some of the work I did at home and I'm continuing to do here, hopefully it's all going in the right direction."