McIlroy looks to box clever in 2022

Rory McIlroy at the Masters with caddie Harry Diamond

Rory McIlroy has decided to forget about the power game and plot his way to success by being more like Tiger Woods.

Winless in the Majors since 2014, the former world No. 1 wants to hit more fairways and rediscover his best form with his irons so he can contend more often in the game’s biggest events.

Speaking ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at new venue Yas Links, the Co Down man is looking to continue his post-Ryder Cup resurgence this week with accuracy, not length, his big goal.

“I used to sit down on the flight here and write down, like: I want to win five times, I want to win a major; I want to win The Race to Dubai; I want to win the FedExCup; I want to do this or that,” he said of his goals for the season.

“And of course I want to do all those things. I'd love to win six times in a season. I've never done that before. I've won five.

“And all those things are great goals and they are things to try to work towards. But I think the biggest thing for guys that at the level that we're at is I want to hit over 60 percent of my fairways. I want my proximity inside 150 yards to be a certain number. 

“I want my strokes gained putting to be a certain number. I think having goals that are more objective and more that I'm in control of, so I can't control if I win five or six times a year. There's so many other variables in there.

“But I can certainly control if I hit 60 percent of the fairways. I can control if my numbers, my strokes gained numbers, my stats are better than they were the year before.” 

As for the quest to add even more distance after getting sucked into the big-hitting game by Bryson DeChambeau last year, he’s learned his lesson.

“No, I don't need to,” he said. “Again, that goal of hitting more fairways, maybe throttling back and hitting 3-wood a little more often or hitting clubs that are maybe not as aggressive off tees and just putting yourself in the fairway. Maybe just being a little bit more of a measured and a controlled golfer.

“I'll certainly pick-and-choose my spots where I can take advantage of the driver and hit it, but the best player of the last 30 years, Tiger, he picked and chose where he hit driver, and he played a very, very controlled game. It didn't work out too badly for him.

“So I think, again, not saying that my game compares to his in any way, but there are certainly aspects of what he did so well in the past that I would obviously love to put into my game.”

As for Europe’s quest to appoint the 2023 Ryder Cup captain, he refused to name his favourite candidate and insisted there was no hurry to find a successor to Pádraig Harrington.

One of the favourites for the job, Henrik Stenson, has reportedly been handed an ultimatum by the European Tour to choose between the captaincy and committing to a potential new golf league backed by Saudi Arabia, which has delayed the naming of the captain for Rome next year.

“I don't think it matters,” McIlroy said of the delay in an announcement that is often made around this week. “It's certainly not on the players’ radar at all. I don't think it matters, really. 

“It’s not as if we're going up and down the range talking to each other thinking about who the captain is going to be. We are all focussed on our own job of trying to play the best golf we can. I think it's more of a bigger deal to you guys than it is to us.”

As for his favourite for the job for which Stenson, Robert Karlsson and Luke Donald are among the front runners, he prefers to sit on the fence this time around.

“I wouldn't want to name anyone because I wouldn't want influence it one way or another,” he said. “There are a number of candidates and they would all do a wonderful job.

“It's not just about the one individual. There's a lot that goes into it. It's the vice captains, I want to say the whole European Tour, but Ryder Cup Europe team. That's a lot that goes into it, and look, good captains lose sometimes, and that's just the way it is. Pádraig was a great captain last time, and I didn't play my part, and I'm sure the other players feel the same way.”

Harrington and McIlroy are joined in Abu Dhabi by a refreshed Shane Lowry, who won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in 2019 and went on to win The Open.

But while the Offaly man (34) has not won since that day at Royal Portrush, he still considers 2021 one of his most successful seasons.

“Yeah, every year you start, you want it to be your best year,” Lowry said. “I'm going have to do some pretty good things to make this my best year, and I'm excited at the challenge ahead. 

“I think I really didn't enjoy my golf towards the end of last year. Played a lot of golf, probably played too much. Really enjoyed my time at The Ryder Cup, and then after that I probably should have taken a bit more of a break.

“But I had a nice break there at Christmas. And I went back to Florida a couple weeks ago, and I was really excited to get back in the golf course and back practising again, which is a good sign for me.

“So excited for the year ahead. It's hard to believe, you know, if you count 2009, which I was on Tour for most of, this is my 14th season on Tour, which is bananas, really. Time flies. It's exciting and I really feel like I'm coming to an age now where I'm hopefully coming to the prime of my career, and I can do some really good things in this game.”

Asked how he defines success, he said: “Look, I want to win again but I just want to keep playing some good golf, keep playing consistent golf and putting myself there.

I feel like if I can keep putting myself in contention, hopefully I can knock off one or two or three tournaments.”

He added: “I'm not going to stand here and go, I want to win the Masters or I want to do this that and the other. Success for me is about being happy with what I'm doing and being happy at the end of every day, I've been happy with what I've done that day. Yeah, it's a tough question to answer.”