Rory McIlroy is back at Augusta – but does he have the wrong ‘mindset’ to win The Masters again?

It has been a busy week for Rory McIlroy . He was in place at the annual Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship over the weekend to hand out prizes to young winners. He conducted some early Masters media duties.

He has been preparing to host Tuesday night’s champions’ dinner, featuring elk sliders and yellowfin tuna carpaccio inspired by his favourite New York restaurant, where the admission ticket is a Green Jacket. McIlroy returns to Augusta National as a hero, the man who conquered the grand-slam mountain , finally admitted into that exclusive club of great champions with Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Danny Willett. But he also returns with duties to undertake.

When you come back the following year – and especially when you’re McIlroy – you are not so much a golfer as an ambassador for the uniquely cultish world of The Masters . Which perhaps goes some way to explaining why the Green Jacket is so hard to win again the next year. Three players have managed it: Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Woods (2001-02).

But they are the exceptions over the tournament’s 92-year lifetime. There is a pomp and ceremony that goes with being The Masters champion that no other player in the field has to deal with. Fold in the recent back injury that has clearly been bothering McIlroy on the course, and his lack of form so far this season, and becoming the fourth man to win back-to-back Masters begins to look like a tall order.