has explained why he decided to stop off at Augusta National ahead of . The blockbuster star touched down at the famous golf course in his this week on his way to the Houston Open.

McIlroy took delivery of a Gulfstream G650ER last year and uses the jet to fly to tournaments. The aircraft can be tracked, with some fans noticing he had stopped off at Augusta on Monday before moving on to Houston. The 35-year-old will be aiming to complete a career Grand Slam when the Masters gets underway in April, having been crowned champion at the US Open in 2011 and The Open in 2014, as well as tasting success at the PGA Championship in 2012 and 2014.

Ahead of the Houston Open, McIlroy was asked about his stop-off at Augusta. And he explained: "I use those trips just to refamiliarise myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens.

"There's four greens that are new this year that they've redone. You just sort of, 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."

The Augusta course was damaged when Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc in September, with a team of people forced to repair the surface.

And McIlroy revealed: "The loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable. But in terms of like they've had to redo that green, but it's exactly the same as what it was.

"The hole will play - apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost. But apart from that, it's pretty much the same."

But the Northern Irishman, who won the Players Championship earlier this month, insisted he is only focused on the Houston Open for now.

He added: "I just want to get a card in my hand and shoot scores and hopefully get myself in contention and try to win another golf tournament.

"It's not as if I'm playing here this week and thinking about two weeks' time. I'm here, I'm in the present, I'm trying to do my best this week and trying to win this golf tournament."