McIlroy excited for year
Rory McIlroy can’t wait to get on golf course
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – In the latter part of 2017, Rory McIlroy couldn’t wait to get off the golf course.
Now, he can’t wait to get to one. “The last time I sat in an interview room on the PGA Tour I wasn’t feeling too good about myself,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of his debut in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “It’s good to be back in the States and playing again. I’m feeling healthy. I’m excited to be back; I’m excited for this year.”
McIlroy has had better years than the one he endured in 2017. He never got right after suffering a stress fracture of a rib, which led to other aches and pains, and basically the only highlights during the year were his marriage to Erica Stoll and the beginning of a relationship with TaylorMade when he changed equipment.
He never found a playing rhythm during the season as he missed significant periods of time that deprived him of playing opportunities and limited his training. For the first time since 2008, McIlroy, 28, went a year without winning anywhere in the world. And the four-time major champion hasn’t won since he left Atlanta as the 2016 Tour Championship and FedExCup victor.
By the time he was done playing for the year in early October, the four-time major champion and winner of 22 worldwide events — 13 on the PGA Tour — was mentally and physically gassed.
But after nearly four months to rest, relax, rejuvenate and have “just a recalibration of what I need to do to be at (an elite level),” he said, McIlroy kicked off the new year in fine fashion.
In January he finished in a tie for third in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and was second in the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour. While he was disappointed not to have won, he called them “great building blocks.”
“I was a little bit anxious to see how I was going to play,” said McIlroy, the for- mer No. 1 who is now No. 8 as he’s gone 22 worldwide starts without a victory, although he’s had 11 top-10 finishes during the stretch. “I was very happy to get into tournament mode quite easily and quite quickly. … I was really happy flying away from Dubai after those two weeks. I feel like where my game’s at and how I’m feeling, if I do what I know I can do, I’ll have chances.”
And he’s feeling great about playing this week with his favorite playing partner — his father, Gerry. McIlroy, who beat his father for the first time when he was 11 or 12 — “I remember feeling a little bad about it,” McIlroy said — has played with his father in the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship numerous times.
“One of the reasons we came here is, obviously, I’m playing with my dad,” McIlroy said. “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 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 a lot of golf in front of him, too.
No longer feeling worn out, he’s mentally and physically fit to play six of seven weeks in a big run-up to the Masters and he’s once again ready to chase trophies and records.
“I want to be one of the best players to ever have played the game when I decide to call it a day,” McIlroy said. “And I know with the right dedication and working on the right things that that could be achievable for me.”