World No. 1 Rory McIlroy has defended his decision not to contest last week’s WGC – HSBC Champions event at Mission Hills in China.
Organisers of last week’s $7m event in Shenzhen singled out McIlroy and 14-time Major winning Tiger Woods for not teeing up on the Olazabal designed course.
However McIlroy, who had competed against Woods on the Monday prior to the WGC event, also stated needing time off and his lack of fondness for the undulating Chinese course as electing not to compete in the event won by victorious Ryder Cup team mate, Ian Poulter.
World No. 1 Rory McIlroy could easily be walking on water and needing to finish top-three in this week’s Barclays Singapore Open to be crowned European No. 1. (Photo – Jenny Matthews/www.golffile.ie)
“It’s a big event, and it’s a tough one to miss,” said McIlroy.
“But I can’t play every week. If I had I would have played five in a row finishing the season and after playing Turkey and Ryder Cup and all the FedEx Cup stuff, it’s just too much.”
And with just three events remaining this year McIlroy was asked to look back on his season and how he is adapting to being ranked the Number One player in the world.
“Managing time is a very important part of my life, it’ something I learnt to do a little bit better last year after US Open in 2011, people want you to do more things and you have to learn how to say ‘no’,” he said.
“You have to say ‘no’ and you have to be selfish sometimes and look after yourself, it doesn’t make you a bad person.
“You can’t do everything, you can’t make everyone happy, you have got to put yourself first and foremost and try fit in the things you want to do. I’m in the fortunate position where I can dictate where I want to play, what I want to do, where I want to go.”
And in a year McIlroy captured a second Major and won three other events on the PGA Tour, he spoke of how he is seeking to continue to improve heading into 2013.
“It’s been a very successful year, winning my first major championship in 2011 was a huge milestone, a huge stepping stone in my career and I want to follow up next season with another Major championship,” he said.
“I’ve achieved all the goals I wanted to this year, I wanted to win a Major, I wanted to get to world number one, win a few tournaments around the world.
“The season is not over yet, there’s another three tournaments left and it would be great to get another win or two before the season’s finished.
“It has been a great year, if I can just keep doing the same things and just try and become better at certain aspects of the game, that’s what I need to do to just keep progressing and get better year by year, I’ve done that every year since I turned pro. Hopefully I can still keep that progression going.”
McIlroy will play the first two rounds of the Barclays Singapore Open in the company of 2010 Open winner, Louis Oosthuizen and Thailand’s in-form Thaworn Wiratchant, a winner three-times on this year’s Asian Tour, and who is this week contesting his 11th straight event.
