Rory McIlroy must follow in Tiger Woods' footsteps to defy 20 year Masters trend

Rory McIlroy turned up at the Augusta National this week hoping to win the green jacket for the first time in his career. But a has left him with an uphill battle as he fights to .

was four-under par for the tournament when his second shot at the par-five 15th settled beyond the putting surface. A misjudged chip came after and rolled into the water and he recorded two double-bogeys.

He finished the day at even par and dropped from a tied second place to tied 27th on the leaderboard ahead of the second round. The Northern Irishman will now have to pull off a difficult feat to stay in with a chance of winning.

The have finished round one inside the top 11 - and the last person to buck that trend was Tiger Woods in 2005. Woods started his second round seven shots off the lead after going around in two-over-par on the opening day.

Woods, however, recovered brilliantly and carded a six-under-par 66 in the second round to get to four-under for the tournament - but remained six shots behind leader Chris DiMarco. At the end of the third round, this difference was cut down to four shots thanks to a 67. That year, Woods won the Augusta National for the fourth time.

Paul McGinley suggested that McIlroy’s bad performance resulted from him being distracted. He explained on Live From The Masters: “It took him a long time to play that pitch shot. His playing partner Akshay Bhatia put his second in the water. He took ages to play his shot - he took about 10 practice swings.

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"So A, it took a long time. Then B, his ball landed in Rory’s line so he had to wait for him to walk around the lake to mark his ball. Then he had to wait for the players to walk off the 16th tee. So he ended up waiting five minutes to play his shot.”

McIlroy, who is making his 17th Masters appearance this week, has a “long way back mentally,” McGinley said. “Nobody will be beating him up more than he is himself. He played so well for the first 14 holes, but to come out with a 72 will be gut-wrenching for him."