McIlroy’s outlook matches weather at Pebble
By Doug Ferguson PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. » Rory McIlroy now gets to sample the PGA Tour’s version of a golf tournament set to a social setting.
McIlroy is making his debut in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and he couldn’t have picked a better year. Good weather has been the norm more than the exception in recent years on the Monterey Peninsula, and this week the forecast is nothing short of glorious.
It matches his outlook on the year.
McIlroy is using words like “optimistic” and “rejuvenated,” and for good reason. He is coming off a forgettable year of a lingering rib injury that kept him out of golf for seven weeks early in the year, five weeks in the late spring, and kept him winless for the first time since 2008.
“I feel like there’s nothing in my way,” McIlroy said. “There’s nothing stopping me from playing a pretty full schedule.”
He sounds as though he can’t wait to get going, especially after his start in the Middle East portion of the European Tour schedule when he tied for third in Abu Dhabi and lost a lead on the back nine in finishing second to Li Haotong in Dubai.
But he starts his road to the Masters at a tournament that doesn’t move all that quickly. McIlroy is used to that. He has played the Dunhill Links on the European Tour seven times, and there’s really not a big difference except for the heritage (Pebble dates to 1937), the weather and the quality of restaurants. Both feature pro-ams with celebrities, corporate titans and other VIPs. The Dunhill arguably gets a nod with the golf courses — St. Andrews and Carnoustie, along with Kingsbarns.
In both cases, McIlroy is playing with his father, Gerry.
But to ask him for what differences he has noticed between the two pro-ams, McIlroy based his answer not on the golf courses or the vibe, but how he felt compared with the last time he was at the Dunhill Links.
That was his final tournament before a three-month break from golf, his chance to let injuries fully heal and his mind fully recharge. McIlroy tied for 63rd, his worst finish in seven appearances. And then he was gone.
“I’m feeling a lot different in myself because I feel like it’s the start of something and not the end of something,” he said. “I was just sort of ready to call it quits for the year after the Dunhill. But with how dejected and wanting to get away from it I was then, to how rejuvenated and optimistic I am now, it feels a lot different that way.”