READY FOR A BIRDIE BLITZ
Rory: There’s no better feeling than winning a golf tournament
4 May 1989 (age 28) 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 11.5 st (73 kg) 2007 22
4
2011 US Open, 2012 & 2014 PGA Championship, 2014 The Open
2012, 2014 & 2015 European Tour Order of Merit winner
2013 & 2014 PGA Tour Player of the Year Fedex Cup champion RORY MCILROY feels a first win since September 2016 is “not far away” as he prepares to make his comeback in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Mcilroy missed last year’s event with the rib injury which disrupted his entire season.
The four-time major winner called an early end to his winless campaign – just the second of his pro career – in October, but has been practising hard over the winter, despite revealing he has an irregular heartbeat.
“I’d love to win again,” Mcilroy said yesterday. “I don’t think there is any better feeling than winning a golf tournament.
“I’ve practised and I’ve played, obviously not competitively in a proper tournament, but I’ve shot some really good scores over the last few weeks. That’s different from being out here with a card in your hand but from everything I’ve seen in practice, there is no reason to think it is not that far away.”
Mcilroy is scheduled to play eight tournaments before attempting to complete the career grand slam with victory in the Masters, although he believes a win is not essential to his chances at Augusta.
“I don’t need to win but I’d love to,” added the 28-year-old, who has finished in the top 10 in the last four years at Augusta.
“It’d be ideal if I was to win one of these next eight events, in fact not just one. It would be great for my confidence going into Augusta. I’d love to get back in the winner’s circle as soon as possible.
“I was excited to be done [last season]. After three and a half months, I’m very happy to be back. I felt like I needed it [the break] physically and mentally.
“I’ve been out here for 10 years and it felt like a bit of a sabbatical.”
Mcilroy’s last win, in the Tour Championship, saw him take the Fedex Cup title. That came just days before the 2016 Ryder Cup, but he ran out of steam in a singles defeat to Patrick Reed at Hazeltine as Europe lost for the first time since 2008.
Seven members of that United States team, plus US PGA champion Justin Thomas, also recorded a comfortable win in the 2017 Presidents Cup and are favourites to claim a first Ryder Cup win on European soil for 25 years in Paris.
“The Americans are very strong and I think for the first time in a long time they have a real cohesion,” Mcilroy added.
“But if you look at Hazeltine and how they set the course up; big wide fairways, no rough, pins in the middle of greens. It wasn’t set up for the way the Europeans like to play.
“I think Paris will be a completely different kettle of fish.
“I think we’ll have a great team and it definitely won’t be as easy as they think it’s going to be.”