Bring on Augusta, says reborn Rory
TWO glasses of wine and a dollop of ice cream was all Rory McIlroy could manage by way of celebration following his stirring victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday.
He started to watch the highlights but got as far as his chip-in on the 15th and promptly fell asleep. The real perk of ending his 18-month winless run, however, was written all over his face as he prepared to get back on the horse today in a tricky game against Peter Uihlein in the WGCMatch Play Championship.
Imagine if he’d gone into this event with its volatile format — his last before the Masters — still wondering where the next win was coming from and still saddled with his worst world ranking for a decade.
‘It’s great to have got the win and now I’ve got all that great stuff that happened on Sunday to fall back on, not just for Augusta but the whole season,’ he reasoned. ‘It’s validation of what I’ve been working on and it fills me with optimism that I can go ahead and do this more often.’
With the world’s top four as well as McIlroy — now back up to seventh, from 13th — in attendance, it is only natural to focus on the big names but this event might offer more by way of opportunity for those lower down the list.
Take Ian Poulter, a former winner who has clambered back into the world’s top 65 to qualify for his first World Golf Championship event for three years.
He remains a long way from the short list for Europe’s Ryder Cup team for Paris but the picture would change dramatically with a deep run here in this format where he made his name.
‘Of course, it’s an opportunity,’ said the 42-year-old. ‘Every other week you’re trying to beat 155 other guys to win a stroke play tournament but if I beat seven players over the next five days I’ll have won and picture what that will do for my career.’
In preparation for his fascinating match-up against Tommy Fleetwood today, and inspired by McIlroy’s putting heroics last week, Poulter has dusted off his magic wand from Medinah in 2012, which hasn’t seen the light of day for the past five years.
‘I’m working on getting my mojo on the greens back, just like Rory did last week,’ he said. ‘My tee to green stats have been amazing this year and if I putted like I did back in the day then my results would be vastly different.’
Poulter and Fleetwood find themselves in a mini-Ryder Cup group against Kevin Chappell and the gritty Daniel Berger, both of whom made America’s Presidents Cup team last year and have aspirations to be in France in September.
‘On paper I’m the underdog to come through as the lowestranked player but we all know anything is possible over 18 holes,’ argued Poulter. ‘I can’t wait to get started.’
Fleetwood had a typically wry take when asked about taking on a ‘match play ninja’ in Poulter. ‘I’ve never gone up against a ninja before so it promises to be a new experience,’ said the Englishman. ‘Do I need a samurai sword as well as my golf clubs?’