McIlroy confident ‘plenty of time’ to get game in shape before Masters

Rory McIlroy insisted he’s still got “plenty of time” to get his game together for the Masters after warming up for his Honda Classic defence by playing speed golf with Tiger Woods.

The world No 1 “whizzed round” as he played 36 holes with Woods at the exclusive Medalist Golf Club on Sunday, then made a plea for unity over the controversial rule changes on putting, which could split the game.

After missing the cut in his first event with his new Nike clubs in Abu Dhabi and then crashing out to pal Shane Lowry in the WGC-Accenture Match Play last week, McIlroy is still confident he will quickly adjust to his new clubs and turn up at Augusta National in April with his A game.

He said: “There are plenty of good signs in there so what I need to do now is put it all together. I’m confident it will all be fine by Augusta.

“I’ve got two events here (the Honda Classic and next week’s Cadillac Championship) and then two weeks off to work on things a bit more and then the Houston Open.

“So I feel like that’s plenty of time. It’s not as if I’m hitting it sideways.”

Speaking at PGA National, where he slammed threats by the PGA Tour to ignore the proposed ban on anchored putting strokes if the R&A and USGA go ahead, McIlroy insisted that his problems were more to do with his swing than this new Nike clubs.

He said: “I guess it’s still an adjustment period. It’s going to be a gradual thing. There’s obviously a bit of an overlap there and you have to just try and get your way into it as best you can.”

Pádraig Harrington insisted in Abu Dhabi last month that McIlroy should play as many competitive “friendly games” as possible to build his confidence in his new sticks.

And McIlroy has been doing just that, hooking up with new pal Woods to play 36-holes in carts on Sunday — an impromptu version of the WGC-Accenture Match Play final following their first round exits in Tucson.

Asked about his budding friendship with Woods and whether Tiger had warmed to him, he said: “I guess you could say that. I think it was more a case of just getting to know one another.”

Revealing they “whizzed around”, McIlroy: “We thought we would play our own matchplay final except it was over 36.

“He beat me the first time and I beat him in the second, so we’re even. We teed off at about 8am nd I was home by 1.30pm. So we played quick.

“He putts with pin in. It’s speed golf. It was good. It was really enjoyable.”

As for a threat of a split in the same over the proposed ban on the anchored putting stroke, McIlroy wants the tours and the amateurs to go down the same road and play by the same set of rules.

The R&A and the USGA, who make the rules of golf worldwide, is proposing to ban players from anchoring long putters.

And with the PGA Tour announcing on Sunday that they are against the ban, McIlroy fears that pros and amateurs could end up playing by two different sets of rules.

McIlroy said: “Obviously I saw what Tim Finchem had to say at the end of last week, and it seems like the European Tour is going to go a different way.

“Monty [Colin Montgomerie] said this divide isn’t good for golf, and I don’t think it is. I think we all need to be on one side or the other.

“We’ve trusted this game of golf; we’ve put it in the hands of the R&A and the USGA for I don’t know how many years, and we’ve always abided by the rules that they have set. I don’t think this should be any different.

“If it were up to me, I would just go with whatever decision the R&A and the USGA comes to after this 90-day comment period ends.”