Gary Murphy: Rory McIlory has to attack Majors from the off

Rory McIlroy needs to back himself more and attack the majors from the first day, according to RTÉ Golf analyst Gary Murphy.

McIlroy showed his best qualities on Sunday at Augusta as he got around in 64 to equal the joint lowest final round score recorded at the course in Georgia.

But, after three rounds in the 70s on the previous days, it wasn't enough to see him catch runaway winner Scottie Sheffler.

The result means that the Co. Down golfer's quest to claim a career grand slam of majors will go on into 2023, with McIlroy calling Sunday's chip in at 18 one of the best moments of his career and vowing to keep on trying to finally claim a green jacket afterwards.

For Murphy though, who was speaking on RTÉ's Game On, it was a case of the former world number one selling himself short in the early rounds to the detriment of his chances of winning the tournament.

"He was so exciting last night making that charge," he said.

"He alluded to it after his first two rounds that he was happy with his performance because he was trying not to play himself out of the tournament.

"The problem was that Scottie Sheffler was playing phenomenal golf with a five shot lead on the field through 36 holes. Sheffler has gone out with an aggressive attitude.

"Maybe at the PGA [Championship] next month he could try to go out and be aggressive in the first round. The greatness of yesterday is that there were no mistakes in it; it's very hard to make no mistakes.

"He's had plenty of rounds where he's had five or six birdies but he's mixed it up with the same amount of bogeys.

"At this stage he's probably trying everything but it appears that his best chance to win a major is to be three or four coming into the final round, and he can have a charge at it.

"He