Riled Rory eager to prove Faldo wrong

It takes a lot to rile Rory McIlroy these days but Nick Faldo’s insistence that his move to Nike is “dangerous” raised the Down man’s hackles ahead of his first-round showdown with pal Shane Lowry in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain.

The six-time Major winner was the first to raise the red flag when McIlroy’s mega move became public knowledge last year. And while the English legend refused to back down yesterday, McIlroy stood up for himself in a way that should give Lowry food for thought.

Vigorously defending his decision to move from Titleist to the American equipment giant, McIlroy said: “Nick Faldo doesn’t know how I feel over the golf shot and I don’t know how he felt. But my guess is he was a little more analytically-minded than I am.

“I try and keep things as simple as possible. If I see the ball going in the direction that I want in the flight that I want, then I’m happy. It feels good, and hopefully I can show that to everyone this week.”

Faldo fears that McIlroy may not achieve his Major goals this year, explaining that the 23-year old from Holywood “went from rookie of the year to world No 1 with the same equipment and now he’s changed absolutely everything which I know, from personal grief, is dangerous.

“Once I heard the news, I tweeted it was a dangerous move. It’s risky because it’s all about the feel and sound of the golf ball, it’s the feel and sound of the putter face, it’s the feel and sound and the torque of a driver.

“People say, ‘Oh, Rory can adapt’, but why should he be adapting at this time in his career?

“He might just waltz through and it’s all fine. Or you may even say, ‘Hey, whatever his goals were before, he may have made them a little more difficult’.”

McIlroy insisted yesterday that his missed cut in Abu Dhabi was more to do with his swing than any teething problems with his new clubs — especially the driver and the putter.

While he’s had four weeks off since Abu Dhabi, he used up 20 of those days to recharge with Caroline Wozniacki in the south of France and even skiing in the French Alps.

He hit balls in Monaco but only started working intensely with coach Michael Bannon 10 days ago. As a result he has ironed out the kinks in his swings, changed the shaft in his new Nike driver to generate more spin and control and opted for a slightly heavier head in his Nike Method putter.

“I’m actually much happier with how I’m swinging the club,” McIlroy said. “The clubs were performing fine in Abu Dhabi, it was just the fact that I wasn’t swinging at my best.

“But I did a lot of good work with Michael over the past sort of 10 days, and I feel like I’ve turned a corner with my swing. I’ve got it back on track, and that’s ultimately what’s going to help me play better.”

On his clash with Lowry, he said: “It’ll be a lot of fun but it will be a shame for either of us to go home on the first day but I’ve got to put it out of my mind that we are quite close friends for 18 holes and try and beat him.”

Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell aren’t quite as close and neither will be showing the other any mercy when they meet in a fascinating first-round encounter.

At 50th in the world, Harrington can seal his place in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Doral in two weeks with a win today. But it is not imperative.

With his ranking projected to rise to 48th before a ball is struck, he can lose and still make it to Miami, providing Alex Noren, Thomas Bjorn, Henrik Stenson and David Toms don’t all win their matches.

“That’s cheered me up no end,” said Harrington, who will skip next week’s Honda Classic.

“I was looking at having to win a match.”

Playing in his fourth event in a row this week, Harrington has ruled out playing eight in a row as he is committed to events in Thailand and Malaysia in the two weeks after the Cadillac Championship.

Hoping to end a run of three first-round defeats in a row, Harrington added: “If I don’t win the match I’ll be happy to be beaten by another Irishman but I am going to be trying just as hard if I was playing anybody. There won’t be any quarter given.”

More worrying for Harrington after a good start to the year is that he lost confidence in his putting on the poa annua greens at Pebble Beach and Riviera and missed both cuts.

“When you lose confidence on the greens it knocks a little confidence out of the rest out your game, so I am not 100 percent sure what to expect,” Harrington added.

McDowell certainly won’t be making it easy for his former Ryder Cup team-mate.

“Pádraig is a tenacious sort of fella but I won’t be sympathising with him if he has a first-round loss, if you know what I mean. You have just got to try and dig in and hole the putts because that’s what it comes down to at the end of the day.”

Selected tee times (Irish time): 2.45pm Ian Poulter v Stephen Gallacher; 4.45pm Lee Westwood v Rafael Cabrera Bello; 5.55pm Graeme McDowell v Padraig Harrington; 6.45pm Luke Donald v Marcel Siem; 7.05pm Rory McIlroy v Shane Lowry; 7.25pm Tiger Woods v Charles Howell III.