PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Rory McIlroy is still golf's overwhelming No. 1-ranked player amid a strong stretch of play and his willingness to take the mantle as the game's top attraction.
In other words, not much has changed for McIlroy since he last played golf in the United States in September except he's that much closer to the Masters, his quest for the career Grand Slam and a third consecutive major championship.
McIlroy makes his 2015 U.S. debut starting Thursday at the Honda Classic, where he lost in a playoff last year and won the title three years ago. And he's coming off a victory in Dubai three weeks ago.
"I feel like I've got a nice scheduling going into Augusta," McIlroy said Wednesday after playing in the pro-am at PGA National. "I'm not playing too much, but I'm playing just enough that I should be as sharp as possible going in there.
"I haven't thought about [the Masters]. What I really thought about over the past couple of weeks is getting ready for these events coming up, which is going to be here, Doral and Bay Hill, and trying to play as well as I possibly can in those. So that gives me a little confidence going into a little break to prepare as well as I can for Augusta."
Going back to last year's Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, a span of 12 tournaments, McIlroy has four victories and four runner-up finishes with just two results outside of the top 10.
He finished second at the Tour Championship in Atlanta -- his last U.S. start -- and started 2015 with a runner-up finish at the European Tour event in Abu Dhabi before the Feb. 1 victory in Dubai.
McIlroy, 25 will play next week's WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral and then two weeks later, for the first time, compete in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
In a departure from recent years, McIlroy will not play the week prior to the Masters, saying that he will find time to visit the course prior to tournament week.
"I sort of do that every year. So that's nothing that's out of the ordinary. I guess not put too much emphasis on it, treat it like I have done every other Masters and go there.
"You can prepare as much as you want, but if you get there on the week and you don't execute the game plan or what you're trying to do, so it's a matter of going there and being prepared but not overthinking it."
McIlroy is coming off his best Masters finish a year ago, when he tied for eighth. In 2011, he had a four-shot lead heading into the final round but shot 80 to tie for 15th. But he won the next major, the U.S. Open, and has added three more including the Open and the PGA Championship last summer.
For the first two rounds at the Honda Classic, McIlroy is grouped with Brooks Koepka, who won in Phoenix three weeks ago, and Dustin Johnson. They tee off at 12:45 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Phil Mickelson is in a group with U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia that begins play at 7:45 a.m.