Masters 2017: William McGirt “My goal is to make the cut”

William McGirt heads in to the second-round of his first ever trip to the Masters four-behind leader Charley Hoffman and in solo second.

The American qualified for Augusta National by winning the 2016 Memorial tournament, and he was determined to make sure he was prepared.

We spoke to him ahead of first appearance, where he said his goal was to make the cut – although we imagine those expcetations will have somewhat substantially been altered in light of his first round.

The Masters is the one tournament you dream about all your life. To be honest, I was beginning to wonder whether I’d get the chance to play it. Since qualifying, I wouldn’t say it’s consumed all of my time… but I’ve thought a lot about it! It’s a kind of sacred ground.

I’ve been there twice already just to get a feel for the place, get over its mystique and kind of get some visuals for the holes. I was hitting a 4-iron into seven and haven’t seen the 11th green on the 2nd shot yet. It was playing super long, but it’s still a neat thing to be able to do without 30,000 people around. I’ll probably go back two more times because the course will start to change.

My first Augusta trip was in 1987 when my dad took me down on a Thursday around my eighth birthday. I remember watching Palmer and Nicklaus coming down 18 and Greg Norman tee off on No.1. I think that day Lee Trevino shot a 65 and I don’t think he was quiet all day long!

I plan to sit down with the guy that’s won it six times (Jack Nicklaus) during the Honda Classic and pick his brains a bit. Also, the member I go down with actually helps set the course up for the tournament – I’ve known him for 25 years and any advice I can get here and there should help out.

Hopefully I can get all the butterflies to fly in the right formation on that opening tee shot. The only thing that is still is the shaft of your golf club because everything else is shaking so much! I’ll try and look at it as just another tee shot but no, it’s the greatest tournament in the world so we’ll see…

Realistically, you don’t see guys going there for the first time finishing in the top two or three. My first goal is to make the cut. But 
I haven’t really put together my goals for the week other than to play as well as I can – though I’d love to qualify for next year.

Judging by the past three years it’s hard to bet against Jordan Spieth. He’s pretty much the favourite along with Rory, though it depends on his putting and you can’t count Bubba out either. The great unknown, for me, is Tiger. If he suddenly starts playing well, it’s a place where he’s had a lot of success, and the one thing I know about Tiger is that you can never count him out.