RORY SEEKING GLORY
FOCUS: NEEDS TO WIN AT SUN CITY TO GET IN RUNNING FOR RACE TO DUBAI
Course is ‘a real good test, [with] the best greens’.
World No 6 Rory McIlroy has come to the Nedbank Golf Challenge knowing he has an outside chance of winning the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, but he said yesterday his first priority is to make sure he gets the ball in the fairway at Gary Player Country Club, and then he can worry about going for the win.
The four-time Major winner is currently eighth in the order of merit, nearly 2 000 points behind leader Francesco Molinari, but the Nedbank Golf Challenge is a prestige Rolex Series event and has 1 250 points on offer to the winner.
None of the seven golfers above McIlroy on the rankings are at Sun City this week, so the threetime Race to Dubai winner knows his first order of merit title since 2015 is still within his grasp.
“I’m coming here with the goal, if I can get into that final group on Thursday with Frankie [Molinari] next week at the World Tour Championship, then that would be a good start.
“I can’t look too far ahead, but if I can do what I need to do this week, leapfrog a few guys and get into that final pair in Dubai, that would be a huge step.
“I’m going to need some great golf over the next two weeks, but we’ll see what happens this week.
“I feel like my game’s in pretty good shape and hopefully I can get off to a good start this week.
“I’ve come here with the mindset that I know I need to win to have any sort of a chance next week, and that’s what I’m going to try and do.
“But this golf course, it’s got four par-fives, so you take care of those and you have to be pretty conservative the rest of the way.
“You have to put the ball in play so you can’t be too aggressive off the tee.
“It’s a real good test and the greens are probably some of the best greens we’ve putted on all year.
“You’ve just got to get your ball on the fairway, and if that means leaving yourself longer second shots in, that’s what you have to do,” McIlroy said after his pro-am round yesterday.
The sweltering bushveld heat at Sun City often causes after- noon thunderstorms to build up, and the Gary Player Country Club becomes an even more difficult beast when the wind starts swirling around the Pilanesberg hills.
“It’s a tricky golf course... you’ve just got to have one of those weeks where you’re precise with your club selection, and knowing how tight some of these pin positions are, the spots where they put them, how tight they can be, you have to be very precise.”