Golf star Rory McIlroy has revealed exactly why he decided not to do any media interviews following his disastrous start to the Masters this year.
On Thursday, the 2025 Masters got underway at Augusta national golf club in Georgia, as thousands of fans across the world tuned in to see who would take home the prestigious green jacket awarded to the winner.
Many fans watched on hoping that world number two McIlroy would finally complete a rare Grand Slam and win the only major to evade him in his career so far, and after a fantastic start to day one, it looked like he could go on and do it.
However, despite shooting four under par across the first 14 holes of the day, the Northern Irishman fell apart towards the end of his round, getting two double bogeys to finish the round on par before leaving the course without speaking to the media to asses his round.
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Ahead of the Masters beginning on Thursday, McIlroy pointed out that PGA Tour players are not obligated to speak to reporters following their round, something that he took advantage of after his disastrous finish to his first round.
But, after coming back on Friday and impressively finishing six under par, McIlroy decided to speak to the media and explain his absence on Thursday, admitting that he needed to get away from the course to reset.
"Overall I'm proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night. I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf yesterday and I wasn't going to let two bad holes dictate the narrative for the rest of the week," McIlroy explained in a press conference.
"Once I left the property I tried to leave what had happened here. I rushed home to see Poppy (McIlroy's daughter) before she went to bed and I flee like I did a good job of resetting"
McIlroy also explained that he spoke with sports psychologist Bob Rotella ahead of Friday's round to formulate a plan to help him get back into the perfect mindset to go and win the competition.
"I had a good conversation with Bob Rotella (sports psychologist) about not pushing too hard too early, just tried to stay really, really patient and that was rewarded with a nice little stretch in the middle of the round."
McIlroy will begin his third round at the Masters at 19:30 BST and will start the round just two shots behind current leader Justin Rose and one shot ahead of reigning champion Scottie Scheffler.
Topics: Rory Mcilroy, Golf
Ben McCrum