Birthday boy Rory McIlroy reckons he’s rid his game of some pre-Masters bad habits so much so he’s confident of celebrating his 27th birthday by ending a 12-month U.S. winless drought in banking this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.
McIlroy tees-up as defending Quail Hollow champion but without a Stateside success since driving off with the 2015 WGC – Cadillac title and some 14 months ago.
If so, McIlroy would also become the first player to win three Wells Fargo titles, and in the process join World No. 1 Jason Day, World No. 2 Jordan Spieth along with World No. 4 Bubba Watson and current No. 5 Rickie Fowler with a first victory of 2016.
Rory McIlroy celebrates 27th birthday at 2016 Wells Fargo. (Photo – Wells Fargo)
“I’m very excited to be back and any time you get to defend a title is exciting and Quail Hollow has been a really good place for me in my PGA Tour career,” said McIlroy.
“I’ve always been very comfortable on this golf course and with the great memories that I have it all adds up to a really enjoyable week, but a week where I feel like I can play really well and strongly and have a chance to contend again.”
McIlroy is returning to competition following a three week break since ending 10th in the Masters, and intends contesting next week’s Players Championship before returning home to host the Dubai Duty Irish Open at the K. Club starting on May 19th.
“I have working hard with Michael (Bannon -his coach) as I’d got into a couple of bad habits leading up to Augusta and it’s never really a good time to work on them,” he said.
Rory McIlroy’s birthday cake. (Photo – Wells Fargo)
“So you are just trying to play golf and shoot a score.
“I’d started to set the club a little deep, got the club a little behind me. I needed to set it a little more vertical and try to get it coming down on the plane a little more with a little less club face rotation, and I feel like I have done that pretty well.
“I am still working on it and I’ve got a few swing thoughts this week but I feel better than I did when I put the clubs away for a couple of weeks.
“I took basically a full two weeks off from golf. I went home to Ireland for a week and then had a bit of a break; I was island-hopping for about 10 days, which was nice.
“I’ve worked pretty hard the last week to lead into this week and looking on to the Players and the Irish Open too.
“So I’ve got three important weeks coming up for me. There’s a couple of things at Augusta that I need to rectify but I feel I’ve done that for the most part and it’s always great to come back to somewhere where I’ve got good memories.”
