“I honestly just don't like the three tournaments leading up to this event,” he said of his recent break.

“I would rather come up here. I did a couple of days where I dropped Poppy to school, flew up here, played, landed back home and had dinner with her, or had dinner with Erica probably. Like I did a couple of day trips like that where I felt it was a better use of my time than going to Houston or San Antonio.

“It wasn't really about conserving energy, but just I felt the more time I could spend up here, the better.” Practice makes perfect.

“I've been on this golf course so much the last three weeks, and that has been a combination of practice and chipping and putting around greens and then just playing one ball and shooting scores and ending up in weird places that you maybe never find yourself and just trying to figure it out.

I think just spending so much time up here has been a big part of it.” 

McIlroy is trying to become the fourth golfer to ever go back-to-back here, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. But he has known for a long time he has what it takes to thrive on this course. 2025’s triumph just proved it to everyone else.

“I think I've known that for a while. Even going back to my first year here in 2009, I shot 30 on the back nine on Sunday. So I have always had the ability to go on these runs.

“But I think it was getting to the point where I would allow myself to play the course the way that I knew that I could. So it was getting past myself. It was staying aggressive. Like my little mantra to myself today was keep swinging, keep swinging hard at it even if you're not hitting fairways, just keep swinging.

“Over the years this golf course is sometimes -- you know, my mindset hasn't been keep swinging. It has been guided, tentative. I think the experience I've accrued over the years and obviously with what happened last year, it makes it a bit easier out there to keep swinging.” How do you protect a lead? By extending it.

“I've built up a nice cushion at this point. I guess my mindset is just trying to keep playing well and keeping my foot on the gas.”

Two birdies in his last three holes saw Shane Lowry finish in a tie for fourth after a terrific second round.

“Look, I'm in a nice position,” said Lowry. “I played well today. I felt like I did a lot of good things and my attitude was great. So I am very, very happy. If you give me this position yesterday morning, I would have taken your hand off. To be kind of in the mix going into the weekend around here is nice, so I'm looking forward to it.” 

The weather was roasting in Augusta and temperatures are set to continue to rise over the weekend.

“We're very lucky it is not windy,” he said. “The wind is kind of light and switching a lot, and it is hard to gauge it. You need to be so precise out there that, you know, whether it is flicking two or three yards downwind or into the wind makes a lot of difference.

So it is tricky, but, as we've seen, there is some good scores out there, but there is also some mistakes out there if you get on the wrong side of some of those pin positions.” 

The 2019 Open champion is in the third-last group on Saturday with Tommy Fleetwood. They will tee off at 7.28pm Irish time. McIlroy plays with Sam Burns in the final group at 7.50pm Irish time.

“Obviously it is a long way to go," said Lowry. "But yeah, I have a late tee time on Saturday afternoon is always a nice place to be in.”