Rory McIlroy faces a different set of questions from the last time he played in a golf tournament, and he had answers for majority Wednesday. Joining McIlroy and Johnson will be Jordan Spieth, who won the Masters and U.S. Open.
Advertisement
But only 40 days later, the Ulsterman insisted he is determined to show Jordan Spieth that he is still the No 1 player in the world. “If I play well, I play well and I’ll play in more events”.
“Expectation levels are the same”, McIlroy told a packed interview room in the media centre at Whistling Straits on the eve of the year’s final major.
McIlroy is back, though, and looked comfortable enough during his practice rounds at the Wisconsin course. “I’m excited about Thursday and Friday. If I put up my best I don’t think the cut should be an issue but it is my first major so we will see“.
All eyes may have been on the duel between Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, but it was another Rory who was among the early pacesetters as the 97th US PGA Championship got under way on Thursday. He had a one-shot lead at the time.
Kaymer beat Watson in the playoff for the Wanamaker Trophy that year, though in a way, it’s a footnote to the drama that surrounded Johnson.
“Coming into a major a few days after getting a win, your confidence is high”, he added. They had neighboring lockers.
“I mean, I went for a 20-minute run this morning”, he said.
“If you don’t hit the fairways, it’s going to be very hard to make pars and have a good finish”, he said. He was upset, clearly, as he should be. It’s not just whenever his ankle ligament healed – the one that’s gone for good after he ruptured it playing soccer with his pals on July 4 – that determined he would defend his title at Whistling Straits this week. “But it was also still not the same”, Spieth said during a press conference at Whistling Straits.
While he’ll be sharing the course and clubhouse with prestigious players such as Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Zack Johnson during the four-day event, Kennedy said he’s prepared to stick to the business at hand on the par-72 course that extends 7,514 yards.
“Anytime that I go back home, one of the things that I regularly do with my friends is that I play football”, he said. He’s having fun, like when he posted a picture on Twitter of him pretending to bite into an ear of sweet corn that was wedged into the silver claret jug he won at the British Open. His victory at the Masters in 2007 opened some eyes.
“I’m just trying to get my game better for years to come”, he said.
But the most famous sandtrap on the 18th, where Dustin Johnson suffered a two-shot penalty for grounding his club when leading the tournament in 2010, has been filled in and covered by a grandstand.
Advertisement
“I want to be a dominant player and I want to be able to, in big tournaments like this, be able to close and win, not only one major but more consecutive majors – two, three, four, I don’t know how many majors“.
