Jordan described the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship as “one of the biggest events of the year [which] kick starts the world tour of 2016”.
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While Spieth said standing on top of the podium would rank alongside winning a major tournament, Northern Irishman McIlroy left no doubt about which one he would rather win given the choice.
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“If he keeps striking like that, I’m going to have to make it up somewhere else”.
McIlroy has finished runner-up in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship four times in eight starts.
“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.
Common sense was prevalent
here in the desert earlier this week when a decision was made to permit European Tour players to wear shorts in practice rounds and pro-ams. “This will help make golf more appealing and engaging to our fans, both at the course itself or watching on television”.
“I probably just need a couple more weeks in the sun to get my legs out in public!”
As McIlroy said: ‘It was a bit of a weird one to give Jordan a bad time when the group behind hadn’t even reached their drives.
Talking to Sky Sports about his game, he said: “I’m a golfing scientist, in a sense, and I’m trying to analyse and understand each and every aspect of the golf course and the way I played, as well”.
But today the 26-year-old spelt out his determination to wrestle the world No1 spot back from Jordan Spieth, who grabbed it from him in such spectacular fashion last year.
Under a revised pace of play policy approved only on Tuesday by the Tour’s tournament committee, any player exceeding the time allowed for a shot – 50 seconds if playing first, 40 seconds thereafter – while being monitored, will be given a monitoring penalty. Typically I’m the one hitting first, though, because he’s so far ahead of me. Again, we have here a case of Spieth’s lightning pace against McIlroy’s more impressive career resume-we’ll see if the Texan can make up any ground. “Minus one or two short putts, which is mainly just rust, it felt like he was on his A game”.
McIlroy admitted he loves to tee-off his season in Abu Dhabi, and has been paired in a glittering three-ball opening round with Spieth and Fowler, who returns for his second consecutive year.
“It’s a real competitive start to the year, and I feel like Abu Dhabi has helped me start the year quickly and well over the past few years, and hopefully that’s the same case this year”.
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Spieth, who shot a first-round 68, was irked by the ruling, and he told reporters afterward that his group was taken off the clock on that particular hole since the group trailing them wasn’t in the fairway yet.
