Rory McIlroy will use his first appearance in the Arnold Palmer Invitational as his last competitive outing before attempting to complete the career grand slam in next month 's Masters . McIlroy missed the cut in the Honda Classic on his PGA Tour debut at the start of the month and then hit the headlines for throwing his three iron into a lake at Doral during the WGC-Cadillac Championship , where he went on to finish joint ninth . The world No 1 spent part of last week practising at Augusta National with his father Gerry and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as he looks to claim a first green jacket and join Gene Sarazen , Ben Hogan , Gary Player , Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in winning all four major titles . Rory McIlroy in action during the pro-am at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando . The event in Florida will be the world No 1 's last competitive action before the Masters . ' I took three weeks off before the Masters in 2011 and it worked pretty well for 63 holes , not quite 72 , ' McIlroy joked in his pre-tournament press conference , a reference to his back-nine collapse in a closing 80 after starting the final round with a four-shot lead . ' I am just trying to adopt a similar approach . ' Asked about his attitude at Augusta last week , the 25-year-old added : '100 per cent fun , zero per cent serious . I did n't hit any extra balls , just hit one ball the whole time . I just wanted to go and enjoy it with my dad , that 's what the whole thing was about . There were four father-and-son pairs and we had a great time . 'Tee to green I know what I am doing , it 's just about being comfortable on and around the greens . ' McIlroy hit the headlines at Doral in the World Golf Championship for launching a club into the water . McIlroy has won all of golf 's other three majors but is yet to taste success at Augusta . McIlroy revealed he had been working hard on his game for several days at home following an 'unplanned ' visit from coach Michael Bannon , adding : ' I am feeling much better with my game than I was walking off Doral 10 days ago . ' I am excited in the direction it 's going and to be here and get one more competitive outing and try to get myself into contention . ' After getting his first look at Bay Hill , McIlroy admitted he was beginning to regret not playing the event sooner , both as the course suits his game and in order to pay his respects to Palmer . 'What Arnold Palmer has done for our game and what he 's done for the PGA Tour , it was about time that I showed up here and played in his tournament , ' McIlroy added . The top five in the world rankings are all competing this week - McIlroy , Bubba Watson , Henrik Stenson , Adam Scott and Jason Day - with Scott looking to bounce back from missing the cut in the Valspar Championship last week , ending his run of 45 PGA Tour events without an early exit .
Rory McIlroy will use Arnold Palmer Invitational as last competitive action before the Masters at Augusta next month . The world No 1 has been practicing at Augusta recently . He is expected to play in a practice round on Sunday and then compete in his first major championship event of 2018 - the Open Championship - which starts on Thursday.