Rory McIlroy insists he will not be thinking about The Masters heading into his final PGA Tour event before the major season commences. (More Sports News)
The world number two has made an impressive start to the season, triumphing at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship to top the FedEx Cup standings.
Nevertheless, McIlroy is seeking further improvement during this week's Houston Open, where he will appear for the first time since 2014.
And the four-time major winner is focused on putting those improvements into practise, with the Masters just over a fortnight away.
"I just want to get a card in my hand and shoot scores, hopefully get myself in contention, and try to win another golf tournament," McIlroy told reporters.
"It's not as if I'm playing here this week and thinking about two weeks' time [The Masters]. I'm here, I'm in the present, and I'm trying to do my best this week to win this golf tournament.
"I'm obviously playing well, and I want to keep playing well. I think every round you play, where you see good things, you're sort of filling up that confidence bucket a little bit.
"It was great to get a win a couple of weeks ago, but I still feel I could have played a lot better. I tried to poke holes in a lot of my game last week and think about things I could do better. There were definitely things that I could work on or do better.
"It's a good opportunity to go out and see if some of the work I did at home, and I'm continuing to do here - hopefully, it's all going in the right direction."
Following the event in Houston, McIlroy will switch focus towards his latest quest to complete the Grand Slam, with the Masters continuing to elude him.
And the 35-year-old took a scouting mission to Augusta National earlier this week to get an initial lay of the land before the tournament commences on April 10.
"I use those trips just to refamiliarise myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens," he explained. "There are four greens that are new this year, that they've redone.
"You have a look at those and see if there's any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that. Apart from that, honestly for me, it's nice to play a practice round without people around, and it sort of takes the pressure off the start of the week for me.
"There are a lot of obligations, there are big commitments - whether it be from media or the par-three tournament on Wednesday, so I just like to get up there and feel like I'm not rushed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday [during]바카라 웹사이트the week of the tournament."
