ROCKETMAN RORY
Slugger McIlroy ready to take on Carnoustie with ultra-aggressive approach
InSpIred by novak djokovic’s triumph at Wimbledon, rory McIlroy is ready to throw caution to the wind in an effort to win The Open and end his near fouryear drought at the majors.
On the course where he won the silver medal as leading amateur in 2007, the 29-year-old northern Irishman is planning an aggressive strategy off the tee that will see him attempt to drive several of Carnoustie’s par fours measuring more than 400 yards, that have been brought within reach due to the parched fairways.
‘We’re seeing a Carnoustie we haven’t played before, where you can take clubs you would never dream of hitting under normal conditions,’ he said.
McIlroy was out on the course at 7am yesterday alongside the Spaniard Jon rahm, and the two sluggers had a ball. To heck with convention and threading long irons between bunkers. If you have got the guts and the skill, why not channel your inner Seve and take the sand traps out of play? It never did the most charismatic european golfer of all time any harm on his way to winning three Claret Jugs, did it?
‘We’re supposed to see the same wind direction for the rest of the week and if you’re someone like us who can fly it over 300 yards, you can basically take all the trouble out of play on a lot of the holes,’ reasoned McIlroy.
‘Obviously you have to pick your points, but I think you’ll see the big hitters play aggressively. Get it down there with a wedge in your hand, with there not being a lot of rough, and you’ve got a big advantage.’
It is a sign of how confident McIlroy is with a driver right now that there might only be three or four holes where he does not deploy his favourite weapon.
‘even the first hole, I’ve never thought of hitting a driver there before but if you hit it down the left, you can get it on the green,’ he said, of a hole measuring 398 yards.
‘The third is usually an iron off the tee but even that hole, if they are using a back pin position and it’s downwind, you can fly it on to the green. I’m so excited about the week. I think you’re going to see so many different strategies.’
how good to hear McIlroy so bubbly. Sure, it might all end in tears with drives flying out of bounds, into burns, or cavernous bunkers. But he is the natural heir to Seve Ballesteros, not Sir nick Faldo, a risk-taker, not a strategist. ‘I think as you get older you get more conservative but playing with Jon was a useful reminder to me of how I used to play,’ he said.
part of McIlroy’s enthusiasm stems from seeing djokovic end a three-year drought of his own at Wimbledon. he said: ‘Watching novak win Wimbledon, he hadn’t
won it for a while, and the emotion he showed was really cool. It reinforces what a huge deal it is to win a major, and when you’ve won a couple, you want to win more.’
The area of his game where McIlroy struggles is on the greens, the main reason why he has not won any of the last 13 majors in which he has competed, having won four of the previous 15.
On his last tournament outing in Ireland a fortnight ago, it was hard to watch him struggle so much with a putter but he is determined to accentuate the positive. ‘You have to remember that I’d been putting on greens in America that were running at 13 or 14 on the stimpmeter (speed gauge), and you come back to links greens that are 10 at best,’ he said. ‘So, there were adjustments to be made. It’s important for me to lower my expectations and be more accepting that I’m not going to hole every birdie opportunity.’
It is often held that The Open does not play to McIlroy’s strengths but in his last three appearances he has finished first, tied fourth and tied fifth.
Four years without a major is long enough, isn’t it Rory? A sheepish expression spread across his face. ‘Jeez, I guess four years is nothing in terms of a career but yeah, when you look at the rate I was winning them, it does feel a long time,’ he said.