RORY MCILROY WAS asked what would be going through Scottie Scheffler’s mind as the eventual Masters winner for 2024 made light work of the back nine at Augusta.

“Nothing. Nothing. Not a lot of clutter,” McIlroy said. “The game feels pretty easy when you’re in stretches like this. That’s the hard thing whenever you’re not quite in form: you’re searching and you are thinking about it so much. But then when you are in form, you don’t think about it at all.”

McIlroy, whose bid to complete the Grand Slam of majors will persist into next year, finds himself somewhere between those two states: he finished his own Masters campaign four over par, but that was enough to tie for 22nd on an especially difficult weekend at Augusta.

And the world no.2 doesn’t anticipate having to make sweeping changes to his game — for the moment at least.

McIlroy did acknowledge the worst-case scenario that he may face a lengthier rebuild further down the line, in which case he would need to take as much as a year to focus on the technical aspects of his game and almost forego results.

But the Northern Irishman is not at such a crisis point yet, he insists.

“Yeah, because all these disappointing weeks are 20ths, 25ths. They’re not terrible weeks by any stretch, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.

“I’m close in some ways, but then I feel quite far away in others. It’s a bit of a… Once I get one thing, sort of put that to bed, then another thing pops up, and it’s just one of those at the minute.

“[It's] probably not the right time to be analytical at the moment, but I think as well if you’re really going to make wholesale changes it’s hard to play a lot of golf and make them at the same time.

“I don’t feel like I need to make wholesale changes. That’s why I’m playing a lot. But if the time comes that I need to make wholesale changes with my golf swing and really try to reassess, it could be a six-month to a year process. Not saying I wouldn’t play any tournaments in that time, but the focus would be on the sort of technical side of things and really not result-driven at all.

“I don’t think I’m there yet, but there may come a time where I need to address that and really go back to the drawing board.

“But I think right now it’s little tweaks here and there and managing my game. I really feel like I can sort of play my way into form here over these next few weeks.”

McIlroy stressed — and reiterated — that he’s “loving golf at the moment”, and pointed towards his packed schedule for evidence.

Before he heads for Quail Hollow for the Wells Fargo in the lead-in to the PGA Championship, he’ll first travel to New Orleans to compete for the first time at the Zurich Classic, a two-man team event.

There, McIlroy will partner his Olympic and Ryder Cup teammate Shane Lowry for the first time on the PGA Tour.

“I’m still going anyway,” Lowry said after his final Masters round. “I hope he is. That’s the plan.”

McIlroy would later reaffirm his own participation at TPC Louisiana next weekend, when the first and third rounds will consist of a four-ball (best ball) format, while the second and fourth rounds will be played as foursomes (alternate shot).

Lowry had his own struggles at the windy Augusta, describing this year’s Masters as the most difficult edition in which he has made the weekend.

The Offaly man finished eight over par for his tournament but, like McIlroy, isn’t pushing the panic button as it pertains to his game.

“I played all right golf throughout the week, just made a lot of bogeys,” Lowry said. “A lot of bogeys.

“No big mistakes, nothing disastrous, just a lot of bogeys.

“I just didn’t really hole my par putts when I needed to. When you do that early on around this course, you get behind the black ball, and it was just tough.

“Look, the thing I need to take away from this week is I don’t think — yes, I made over-par for the tournament, but I don’t think I’m playing any bad golf at all. I think I’m thereabouts, I know that. I know that going forward over the summer, I’ve played some good golf over the last few months and I still have some good golf in me.

“Off the tee I’m as good as I’ve ever been. My iron play is very solid. My short game feels good. It’s all about holing a few putts.”

And Lowry indicated that he may have already sparked a turning point with putter in hand ahead of his Masters final round, a two-over-par 74.

“I felt great with the putter today, to be honest,” Lowry added on Sunday. “I did an hour yesterday afternoon with my coaches, and I found something, a little bit.

“I burnt the edge a lot early on, which is disappointing, but I hit some lovely putts. It was nice to stand over some 20-footers today and feel like I was actually going to hole them. Hopefully I can take that into next week.”

Lowry will tee it up at the RBC Heritage this weekend at Hilton Head, having been included as a sponsor’s exemption along with Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson, and Gary Woodland. McIlroy and Seamus Power are also in the field.