McIlroy excited to team up with his dad in States

RORY McIlroy is back in the States and eager to impress at Pebble Beach as he returns to the PGA Tour.

McIlroy, ranked eighth in the world, has not played on Tour since the BMW Championship in September, and he’s excited to make his Pebble Beach Pro-Am debut this week.

“It’s good to be back in the States and playing again,” McIlroy said.

“I’m feeling healthy and I don’t think I could have picked a better week to come back over here.

“It’s obviously beautiful. It’s been a nice few days of preparing, seeing a couple of golf courses that I’ve never seen before. I’m excited to be back, I’m excited for this year.

“The last time I sat in an interview room on the PGA Tour I wasn’t feeling too good about myself, but I’m really happy to be back and looking forward to starting a busy run over the next few weeks leading up to the first Major of the year.”

McIlroy is teeing it up alongside a familiar face this week. He said that was a big reason why he chose this spot as his return to the Tour.

“I would say one of the reasons we came here is, obviously, I’m playing with my dad, so that’s a part of it,” McIlroy said.

“It’s nice to be able to come here and play with him. But I think with the Middle East run ending a week earlier and having a week in between Dubai and here, that helped as well. So we could fly back to Florida, sort of get settled, get everything sort of set there and then make our way over to the West Coast.

“So I think just that extra week has helped. And it’s a tournament that I’ve always watched and I’ve always thought one day it would be really cool to play with my dad and fortunately we were able to get him in and play. And we’ve played the last three days and it’s been a lot of fun and I just hope he hasn’t tired himself out. He’s got a lot of golf left over the next few days.”

McIlroy has finished in the top three in three of his last four starts, including a runner-up finish in Dubai. After his long break, he was pleased to return to form.

“It was good to see. I was a little bit anxious to see how I was going to play,” added McIlroy.

“I took a lot of confidence and two pretty strong fields, two chances to win, obviously didn’t win either, but I thought it was a really strong start to the year and I was really happy flying away from Dubai after those two weeks.”

Meanwhile, Golf’s governing body has stressed that the game needs help to tackle the “wider issue” of climate change after a report highlighted the risk to coastal courses, including Open Championship venues which includes Royal Portrush.

Wetter winters and coastal erosion linked to climate change are threatening the future of golf, according to a report from the Climate Coalition which was published yesterday. Refreshed: Rory McIlroy says he feels good about himself