Rory Will Play in Texas

Rory McIlroy made the decision to play at the Texas Open over lunch with his caddie JP(Fitzgerald). A third round 71 at the Shell Houston Open saw him close to his best for 12 holes which out him in the top 5 only to spoil the hard work with some silly mistakes later on in the day!

'It was after my second round that my caddie, JP [Fitzgerald], asked me why didn't I add an event before Augusta, because he could see I was close to playing well,' said McIlroy. 'To be honest, I'd not even considered it because I had the week planned out. But the more I thought about it over lunch, the more I could see the wisdom in what he was saying, so we decided to go for it.'

At the 13^th MvIlroy had a five-foot birdie putt to sink that would have moved  him into the top 5 with a five under par for the day. After some good play everything was looking brighter but he missed the putt then continued to drop shots at the 14^th and 18^th ending on a 71- and trailing by nine shots.

'They're just silly mental mistakes that I feel are coming about because I'm still a bit rusty,' he said. 'I've not played a lot this year and I need to play more before I get to Augusta. So now I've got another round here and, hopefully, four more rounds next week.'

'That's the best I've struck the ball for a while and everything is moving in the right direction. Now I just have to eradicate the stupid errors,' he said.