Irish Golf Desk

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Rory ready for Blue Monster ride

Rory McIlroy is gunning to shoot down some golfing monsters in this week’s CA Championship at Doral.

The boy wonder, 19, has taken America by storm over the past two weeks, reaching the quarter-finals of the Accenture Match Play in Tucson before racking up more birdies than everyone bar Ben Crane on his strokeplay debut in the Honda Classic.

The swashbuckling teenager had to settle for 13th at West Palm Beach after racking up bogeys at the last two holes. But he has no plans to curb his aggressive style in Miami and reckons he can conqueror Doral’s Blue Monster and course specialist Tiger Woods to lift his first PGA Tour title.

Winner of the Doral Junior Publix Under 10 title as a nine-year old schoolboy in 1998, McIlroy said: “I can't wait. I've played a lot of junior golf at Doral, so it will be nice to get back. It will be nice to get back to a place that I'm familiar with.

“If I can just keep playing the way I have been, maybe just try and give myself a few more opportunities and try and limit my bogeys, I'll hopefully have another good one.”

McIlroy thrilled huge crowds with his aggressive style in West Palm Beach, racking up 18 birdies as he finished tied for 13th alongside world No 2 Sergio Garcia.

And while he was left to regret 13 bogeys and a triple, he has vowed not to curb his attacking instincts on the Blue Monster track where Woods has won three times.

The Holywood ace should have finished his first US strokeplay start in the top ten but bogeyed the 17th and 18th as he went in search of birdies.

McIlroy said. "I'm pretty disappointed the way I finished. I got myself into a great position and just let it slip.

"I played a lot better last week at the Match Play than I did this week but I still finished top 15. It's been a solid week. I was hoping for a little better but I still have a big event next week to try and do well there.”

Fully aware that he is now a massive draw in the US, McIlroy has been floating on air since he grabbed his breakthrough win in Dubai.

Reflecting on a whirlwind rise to 16th in the world, he said: “Yeah, it's been huge. I knew my game was there. Just a matter of time before my game broke through and obviously I did it there. Ever since then, I've played really well.”

And he has no plans to change his style this week in an event that world No 1 Woods has won six times already.

Asked if he’d copy Woods and go for the green at the Doral’s driveable, 372 yard 16th, he grinned: “I'm quite an aggressive player, I tried to go for the pin at 18 and didn't quite come off.

“If the wind is there and if I feel as if I can get it on to the green, I'll go for it.”

McIlroy is one of four Irishmen in the field alongside fellow Ulstermen Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell and triple major winner Padraig Harrington.