AUGUSTA, Ga. – The tee shots in the woods to the right may have been something subconscious, a reflex triggered by a long year of thinking about what might have been had he not hit one tee shot so terribly far left during his last Masters.

Rory McIlroy insisted otherwise, and you have to give him his due, because so far in his young career, he’s been nothing but honest when it comes to his golf.

He answered every question when his meltdown on No. 10 in the final round last year cost him the green jacket almost everyone thought he would win in a runaway. And he stood his ground Thursday when his first tee shot into the trees on the right led to a double bogey and must have brought back memories of the nightmare.