McIlroy says improved swing will click at Masters

McIlroy says improved swing will click at Masters

Published Feb. 16, 2012 6:38 p.m. ET

Rory McIlroy is confident the changes he has made to his swing will click by the time he tees off at the Masters in April.

The 22-year-old Northern Irishman has been working with long-time coach Michael Bannon on improving his swing set-up.

''I still feel it's going to take a couple more weeks to fully click in and that if feels completely comfortable but it's definitely on the right track,'' he said.

''Hopefully, there will be a day when it all clicks and it comes easy to me. As for the time being, I still have plenty of swing thoughts I am thinking about out on the golf course.''

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McIlroy leaves for the United States on Monday for the Accenture Match Play Championship, which begins Feb. 22. The Masters begins April 5.

He began his season with a second-place finish in Abu Dhabi and fifth place in Dubai last week, when he revealed he had been working on a ''few fundamentals'' in his swing.

''Posture was one of the key things, and just a little bit of swing plane,'' McIlroy said Wednesday. ''I was setting the club a little steep on the way back, so the club was getting a little bit across the line at the top.

''So Michael (Bannon) and I have been working on me getting more feel, and getting the club pointed a little more left at the top so it's on the right plane. That's basically it.''

He added: ''I should be well and truly ready for Augusta.''

McIlroy famously collapsed on the final day of last year's Masters, blowing a four-shot lead with a closing round of 80, but he bounced back two months later by winning his first major at the U.S. Open and finished the year as the No. 2-ranked player.

After a stellar season in 2011, McIlroy believes he is on track at the start of the new year.

''I feel like I have taken big strides this year in my game and in the way I am swinging the club and in my consistency, as well,'' he said.

''So I've had a second and now a fifth, and even if you don't have great weeks but then you still managed top-fives that's not a bad thing.''

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