Rory McIlroy has confirmed that his appearance at the upcoming Arnold Palmer Invitational will be his last competitive outing before next month's Masters.

McIlroy has endured a frustrating year so far, missing the cut in the Honda Classic before throwing a club into a lake at Doral during the WGC-Cadillac Championship.

However, he goes into the Masters looking to become just the sixth player to claim all four major titles and believes that a break could do him good in his quest to win the green jacket.

McIlroy almost clinched the title four years ago, only to spectacularly collapse on the back nine in the final round.

"I took three weeks off before the Masters in 2011 and it worked pretty well for 63 holes, not quite 72. I am just trying to adopt a similar approach," he told reporters.

McIlroy is taking part in the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first time this week, and he also expressed how much he is looking forward to the tournament.

"What Arnold Palmer has done for our game and what he's done for the PGA Tour, it was about time that I showed up here and played in his tournament," he added.

Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the only other players to have completed the career grand slam.