Over a decade on from his last major championship victory, Rory McIlroy enters next week’s Masters as one of the favourites to take the prestigious title. McIlroy has never donned the famous green jacket, but with two tournament victories to his name already this year, the Irishman is being tipped to go all the way.
His best-ever finish at Augusta came three years ago when he finished the 2022 edition in second place, three shots off eventual winner Scottie Scheffler. But, according to a supercomputer, his wait to be crowned Masters champion is expected to go on, with McIlroy being snubbed for the title.
That’s because Scheffler is instead predicted to take his third green jacket in four editions of the tournament, with the supercomputer – which was set up by data analysts at Prime Casino – giving the American a 31.9 per cent chance of victory. It’s a hefty chunk in Scheffler’s favour, but the good news for McIlroy is he is still being fancied as the second-most-likely victor.
The four-time major winner’s own chances are being given a 23.7 per cent chance, meaning he and Scheffler combined make up over half of the predicted winning percentage. What’s more, even if he doesn’t win, McIlroy is still being touted to have an impressive weekend, with the 35-year-old handed a 44.3 per cent shot at finishing in the top 10.
Alongside the supercomputer’s prediction, McIlroy will also have to overcome a niggling injury if he’s to win in Georgia next weekend. Speaking after a solid T5 finish at last week’s Houston Open, he told the Golf Channel: “My right elbow has been bothering me a little bit so I’ll maybe just get some treatment on that and make sure that is OK going into Augusta. I’ve got my coach Michael Bannon coming in [on Monday], we’ll do some work and make sure everything is in good shape for a week’s time.”
On his performances of late, the Masters hopeful added: “I wanted to see myself drive it a little bit better, which I haven’t really seen. It’s hard here because, you know, it’s so wide that it entices you to just stand up and try to hit it as hard as you can, so accuracy isn’t a premium at all this week.
“Then, I guess like short game-wise, like chipping, I wanted that to be a little better. I felt I was a little tentative with some chips at Sawgrass, but chipping’s been really good this week. I scrambled well, so that’s been good to see. I still feel like I need to do a little bit of work off the tee and sort of get the driver figured out.”