After years of heartbreak, can Rory McIlroy finally win the Masters?

Rory McIlroy will tee off on Thursday at 6.12pm Irish time on the first day of the Masters in Georgia.

It is the first major tournament of the golf season and this year the news focus will be firmly on the man from Northern Ireland. It’s his 17th Masters and he’s known not so much for how he plays in Georgia but for the way he keeps falling short.

While he is a consistent winner of other tournaments, building a golfing fortune estimated to be north of €250 million, and is only second to Tiger Woods in earning power off the course, one prize eludes him – the Masters in Augusta.

He has finished in the top 10 seven times but has never won it. Commentators say he chokes, that the fault is not physical but mental. He has, in his interviews, been very open about his inability to seal the deal, to get so close to winning.

The stakes are high; if he does finally win, he will complete the career grand slam, something only five other golfers have ever done.

Irish Times sportswriter Malachy Clerkin has watched McIlroy’s career from the start and he says that he is in the best form of his life, playing like a man who could win the Masters.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

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