Butch Harmon has sung praises of Rory McIlroy's improved short-iron game, suggesting it could be the key to a Masters victory after taking lessons from last year's experience. The Northern Irish golfer sought Harmon's expertise for an emergency tune-up on his approach play before the season's first major last year. Despite finishing 22nd and a distant 15 shots behind the winner Scottie Scheffler at the world No. 2 spot, Harmon believes McIlroy's performance this season, particularly the 9-iron he struck in the playoff at The Players, indicates he's ironed out the kinks in his game. "I think he has got a great chance this year," said the Sky Sports analyst. "You saw how well he has played in the last few weeks. He has already won twice." "What I worked on with him was shots from 150 yards in. He was hitting the ball left all the time. I wanted him to follow through and take the ball out of the air a little bit." "An example of all the work we did was when he won in the playoff at Jacksonville. That shot he hit on the 17th hole in the playoff into the wind, a flighted down 9-iron. It was just perfect." "That is really what I worked on with him. The rest of his game was fine. He has gone on and done the work himself and he has done a good job." "He is the only one to have won twice this year. Him and SS are going to be the co–favourites because Scheffler played well last week." "You look at how they are playing going into this thing. Rory has already won twice, he had a good final round at Houston where he had a run at it. I think he is in good stead." But Harmon, now 81, said he saw up close how tense McIlroy got in the build-up to the Masters last year. "He wants it so bad, he just has to relax when he gets there," said the American. "It got to him last year - you could see it in his demeanour and how quickly he walked. Even in his warm-up, things weren't as calmed down. He needs to relax, take it easy, don't push, don't get all wrapped up in the hoopla, he is going to have to do a lot of media. If he can just relax and play his game, he is going to have a hell of a chance." Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox