Rory McIlroy says preparation at ‘home course’ Augusta aided Masters defence
Rory McIlroy has explained how weeks of preparation at “home course” Augusta National after advice from Jack Nicklaus played a substantial role in his successful Masters defence.Rather than play in PGA Tour events in the lead up to the Masters and despite a back injury causing him competitive disruption, McIlroy spent considerable time at Augusta in the lead-up to the Masters.On one occasion, it is understood he played the front nine in 29 when playing with a single ball.After seeing off Scottie Scheffler by a stroke, the Northern Irishman and now six-time major winner pointed towards his deliberate buildup.“I joked last week that this place feels like my home course,” said McIlroy before leaving Augusta.
“I haven’t played anywhere else in the last two or three weeks really.I felt prepared in that way.I felt prepared that wherever I hit it on the golf course, I sort of know what to do.I know where to miss.I’m pretty comfortable with all the shots around the greens.
“It’s a good blueprint.I’m not going to take three weeks off before every major, but to get to the major venues early, do your preparation, play.And not just play and look at things, but actually play.Go out there with one ball, shoot a score and try to do it that way.“When I’ve talked to Jack Nicklaus over the years, how he prepared for majors, he would go the week before and he would simulate a tournament.
He’d play one ball for four days, shoot scores.So then when he got to the tournament, it felt second nature to him.I did a little bit of that and I think that’s certainly a good way to prepare going into the next majors.”Expect to see plenty of McIlroy at the sites of the three remaining majors of 2026; Aronimink, Shinnecock Hills and Royal Birkdale.After the emotion and adjustment attached to the 2025 Masters, where McIlroy completed the career grand slam, he believes he will reset much quicker.
“I was glad last year that the whole grand slam thing was done, because that was what I was chasing,” McIlroy said,“And now going forward, everything is icing on the cake or a cherry on top, all gravy, whatever you want to call it,“But I feel like I can just go and play my game and have a chance to win a lot more majors,”Scheffler stopped short of criticising tournament organisers but clearly raised an eyebrow at Friday afternoon conditions, when McIlroy birdied six out of Augusta’s closing seven holes,“I’m not in charge of course setup,” Scheffler said.
“I would have liked it to have been a little bit more equal in terms of the firmness on Thursday and Friday.I was a bit surprised at how soft things were on Friday afternoon, especially as it got late in the day.“But the weather also changes and it was a bit windy on Thursday, so who knows.That’s part of the game.”
Qantas cuts domestic flights and raises fares as travel patterns shift due to Middle East turmoil
Qantas has lifted fares and cut domestic flights amid a surge in travel demand away from airlines that transit through the troubled Middle East.The Australian airline says it has redeployed capacity from its US and domestic network to take advantage of the strong interest in Europe-bound travel – in particular to Paris and Rome – according to a market update released on Tuesday.Qantas plans to cut capacity across Qantas and Jetstar’s domestic network by about 5% in May and June. This includes reducing the frequency on key routes between state capital cities, and cutting flights on some regional services.Persian Gulf carriers – including Emirates, Etihad and Qatar airlines – have been reducing services due to the Iran conflict, prompting passengers to seek alternatives
Holidays take a hit as UK cost of living fears and Iran war bite
UK consumers have cut back on travel spending for the first time in five years, as they worry about the rising cost of living amid the Iran war.Overall consumer card spending increased 0.9% year on year in March, down from February’s 1%, according to data from Barclays.Travel spending fell by 3.3% last month, the first decline recorded by the lender since March 2021, as people postponed trips abroad or opted to holiday domestically
The UK needs more North Sea gas; imports from the US are the real enemy | Nils Pratley
Terrific news: despite turmoil in the strait of Hormuz, the UK will have sufficient supplies of gas to meet demand this summer, said National Gas, which operates the gas transmission system, on Monday.But contain your relief. The summer months of lower usage were never likely to be a moment of stress. Gas via pipelines from the UK and Norwegian fields in the North Sea can handle virtually all UK demand when most of the 24m households with a gas connection have their heating turned off. Little liquefied natural gas, or LNG, the stuff that arrives on ships, is needed during the summer
Oil price dips below $100 a barrel after Trump claims Iran wants deal
Oil prices have fallen back after briefly rising to above $100 a barrel as Donald Trump claimed Iran had made contact and wanted “very badly” to strike a deal in the face of his blockade of the strait of Hormuz.The Brent crude international benchmark rose above the key psychological threshold earlier in the day, at one point up 6.9% to $101.70 a barrel on news of the US president’s plan to block the waterway to Iranian marine traffic.However, it later eased back to a little over $99 a barrel after Trump said the blockade had come into force at 10am ET (3pm BST) and the Iranians had subsequently got in touch
Goldman Sachs chief ‘hyper-aware’ of risks from Anthropic’s Mythos AI
Goldman Sachs’s chief executive, David Solomon, has said he is “hyper-aware” of the capabilities of Anthropic’s Mythos AI model and is working “closely” with the tech firm after it issued warnings about the cybersecurity risk it poses.The US bank had been monitoring the rapid advances in artificial intelligence, including large language models (LLMs), as part of wider efforts to protect itself from hackers.“Obviously the LLMs are making rapid progress and we’re hyper-aware of the enhanced capabilities of these new models with the help of the US government and the model publishers,” Solomon told analysts on an earnings call on Monday.That included Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI tools. Last week it claimed that its latest model, Mythos, posed an unprecedented risk because of its ability to expose flaws in IT systems
Oil price tops $100 a barrel as US blockades strait of Hormuz; Goldman Sachs posts rise in profits – as it happened
Time to wrap up…Oil prices have jumped back above $100 a barrel and global stocks fell after weekend talks between the US and Iran ended without an agreement and Donald Trump imposed a blockade of the strait of Hormuz.The US president announced the blockade on Sunday, targeting Iranian vessels and ships that have paid a toll to Iran for passage through the strait, in an attempt to choke off the flow of Iranian oil.US Central Command said it would start blocking all Iranian Gulf ports and coastal areas from 3pm UK time, in effect seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.Trump said on Monday afternoon that ships coming near the blockade would be “eliminated”, warning Iran not to send its “fast attack ships”:double quotation markWarning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea. It is quick and brutal
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