McIlroy’s set up for success
Clarke came alive when he trudged the Kent dunes and the links air filled his lungs last month and the PGA of America’s preparation of Atlanta Athletic Club this week can have a similar effect on Rory McIlroy at the 93rd PGA Championship.
McIlroy’s love of parkland courses is well documented and that, married to the phenomenal support he enjoys on this side of the Atlantic following his US Open victory in June has already led to his wish to take up PGA Tour membership in 2012 and buy a house in the United States.
More specifically, with two third-place finishes from two appearances, at Hazeltine on his PGA debut and last year at Whistling Straits, McIlroy is clearly at home in the final Major of the year and he admitted that was the case even more so than the Major he won by a country mile at Congressional Country Club.
“The way the PGA set up their golf course it feels as if it suits me really well,” McIlroy said yesterday. “You’ve got to drive it well, you’ve got to hit your irons well but it gives you a chance as well. They want you to make birdies here, they want you to go under par and I like that about this tournament.”
So will we see a repeat of that success? A tie for sixth place at Firestone Country Club last week in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational certainly marked a return to form having played just twice since his US Open victory, his ill-at-ease T25 in the wind and rain in Sandwich and a lacklustre T34 at the Irish Open a fortnight ago.
The weather, too, will be significantly different to both those events, with temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit forecast and high humidity possibly leading to thunderstorms over the weekend.
Significantly, too, the 22-year-old said yesterday he had got the US Open victory, his subsequent elevation to tabloid fodder and even an unseemly Twitter row over his caddie JP Fitzgerald out of his system and he was ready to go to work.
“JP and I were talking last week in Akron. We actually felt as if we were back to work, back to doing what we were supposed to do,” McIlroy said. “It was a little bit of a whirlwind after what happened at Congressional, but it’s nice to feel like you’re back out there and finally working hard again, focusing on trying to win golf tournaments.
“I feel when I get to these big tournaments, I feel comfortable and as if I’ve got a great chance.
“I just need to putt a little bit better. If I hit it this week like I hit in Akron, hole a few putts, I think I’ll go very close.”
McIlroy will start favourite, although the victory at Firestone last Sunday by Adam Scott, aside from the furore surrounding his new caddie Steve Williams and his axe to grind with former employer Tiger Woods, has seen the Australian’s claims pressed in the betting markets.
Woods was the last man to win the Bridgestone and PGA back-to-back four years ago, and a rejuvenated Scott, confidence on the greens restored by a long putter to go with his excellent tee to green game and a near-miss at the Masters, has the credentials to become the seventh successive first-time Major winner come Sunday, as does his compatriot Jason Day for that matter.
Martin Kaymer has not won since January and will defend the title he won in a play-off at Whistling Straits a year ago as a relative underdog while the men who overtook the German as world number one, Lee Westwood and now Luke Donald, look much better placed and both are in determined mood to finally win a Major.
A fit-again Woods, now down to 30 in the world rankings, is playing his first Major since the Masters when he challenged on the final day’s front nine but was overhauled by Day, Scott and eventual winner Charl Schwartzel on a back nine described this week by Greg Norman as marking the changing of the guard.
“Of all the golf I have watched this year, the last nine holes of the Masters was probably the testament that nobody is intimidated by Tiger Woods anymore,” Norman said.
“There are a lot of young kids here this week who were at Augusta and they were no doubt thinking, ‘screw you, Tiger! I am going by you’, and blew Tiger away.”
You would imagine that McIlroy is thinking along the same lines.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
