The most interesting thing is that he said he was struggling on the range when he was warming up. If you can drive the ball well and keep it in play, because you can see if you do hit it into the rough it makes it awfully hard, even just to reach the green.
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“But if I had not won a major, I would probably still say a major”. Rory and Rickie were very surprised.
“It’s not about making statements or laying down markers, it’s about playing the best that I can”, the four-time Major victor said.
“I’m an intern. I’ve learned to believe in myself”.
However, the putter took some time to warm up as he dropped two shots on his first nine – on the 13th and 17th holes – both because of three-putts.
‘I understand the rule that if you are taking longer than the allotted time, you get a bad time. I understand the rule. “But it doesn’t make sense when we had caught up and were going off the clock”. It’s a bit of a gray area. “I didn’t fight it. I was respectful about it”.
The Northern Irishman hasn’t played competitively since winning the World Tour Championship in November in Dubai, clinching the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.
“So look at Tiger (Woods), Phil (Mickelson), Rory (McIlroy), these guys that have done more in the game of golf than I have, and I want to strive to get to what they have done”. Sometimes we need to apply some common sense, especially when we are not out of position.
Jordan Spieth is apparently a little too slow for the liking of the European Tour.
Paramor later moved to clarify his stance.
The American was at the receiving end of the new pace of play procedure adopted by the European Tour, and received a bad monitoring time on the eighth hole.
ABU DHABI – Former world No 1 Rory McIlroy said he was excited to start his new season in the company of the reigning world No1 Jordan Spieth. “One is you can be satisfied and think about all the stuff you’ve done”. It was very impressive today, minus one or two short putts which is mainly just rust. So to shoot four under with the way I felt with my driver is spectacular. I hit a striped shot 210 yards right next to the flag and I thought, “This could change golf”.
On a high-class leaderboard, desert-specialist Henrik Stenson shot 65, while gifted South African Branden Grace stands alongside McIlroy on six under.
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Surprisingly, amateur Bryson DeChambeau is in top spot heading into the second day, after he tied the lowest amateur opening round record of 64. In the quest to ideal a repeatable single plane motion, the 22-year-old has cut all of his irons to the same length, equivalent to that of a standard seven iron. “I like focusing on the journey process”. “There’s no expectations. I’m not anxious about anything”.
