A year ago the then World No. 2 ranked Rory McIlroy arrived at the Honda Classic, and three days after losing out in the final of the WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship, declaring: “It was a very positive week for me.”
Four days later the Northern Irishman held off Tiger Woods, who had posted a last day 62, to capture the title and in also moving to World No. 1 McIlroy, remarked: “It was great to get the job done today.”
A key to McIlroy’s third PGA Tour victory and his first of four triumphs in 2012 was precise timing with his trusted and very familiar Titleist clubs.
But after missing the halfway cut in last month’s European Tour Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and losing out to close friend, Shane Lowry in the opening round of Arizona, McIlroy’s biggest concern in the New Year is getting the timing right with still unfamiliar new Nike clubs.
World No. 1 Rory McIlroy hoping he get his timing right ahead of the defence of his Honda Classic title. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
“I’ve just been missing a lot of them right, just getting ahead of it,” he said before heading back to his new Florida home.
“I think it’s more a timing thing than anything else. Everything else was actually pretty good out there. I just need to go and work on them.”
And hereunder is a number of questions put to McIlroy after being bundled out of the $US 8.75m event.
Q. I’m sure your expectations being the overall top seed were not to lose after round 1?
RORY McILROY: No, of course not. You want to try and get as far as you can, but I guess that’s match play. I probably would have lost by more if I had played someone else in the field. It wasn’t a great quality match. But it would have been nice to get through and just get another day here and another competitive round under my belt. I’ll go and practice over the weekend and get ready for next week at the Honda.
Q. What did you and Shane talk about down the stretch or after the match was over?
RORY McILROY: Not much, really. There wasn’t that much chatter. We were kind of chatting the first few holes and then it was getting pretty tight around the turn, and the back nine there wasn’t much talk out there.
Q. How do you assess your game right now and what do you think you have to work on the next few weeks?
RORY McILROY: Iron play, I guess. I missed a lot of irons right. I felt like I drew the ball really well. I hit the ball well off the tee. I just need to take advantage of the driving I’ve been doing.
Q. What strides do you think you’ve made with your new clubs?
RORY McILROY: I’m hitting the ball so much better off the tee, which is a huge positive. I’m more comfortable with everything around the greens.
Q. Do you feel a little bit rusty?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I do, I do. It’ll be nice to go play a tournament next week and then Doral, as well. Yeah, obviously disappointed I didn’t get to play a little more golf this week, but I’ll practice over the weekend.
Q. Is this just kind of another example about how unpredictable match play can be?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I guess so. Match play is a bit of a‑‑ it’s not a lottery, the best guy usually wins, but if it’s over 36 holes or something, it’s more of an even sort of keel. I would have been 1‑down after 18 and had a great chance, but that’s 18‑hole match play; you have to get off to a fast start and you have to play well to win.
Q. When he holed in the chip in front of the grandstand there, did that do anything to the momentum of everything?
RORY McILROY: It changed it a little bit from going‑‑ looking like I was up there at three feet for par and he was looking like he was struggling for a halve, and all of a sudden he wins the hole, the momentum shifted a little bit.
Q. How quickly can you fix timing issues?
RORY McILROY: It shouldn’t be a lot of work, I just have to go and look on the range at it.
