Rory McIlroy thrilled to be taking on Riviera challenge

Rory McIlroy says he is excited about his Northern Trust Open debut this week at Riviera Country Club as he starts his tournament build-up in the United States for the Masters in April.

While the opening Major championship of the year will be firmly in his mind over the next two months, McIlroy has long desired to compete at Riviera, which is consistently ranked by the players as one of the top courses on the PGA Tour.

“I wanted to come here because of what I had seen on TV, and the great things that people say about Riviera,” world number three McIlroy, 26, told reporters on Wednesday after playing in the pre-tournament pro-am competition.

“And this was the perfect timing. I had a week off after all the stuff I did in the Middle East (on the European Tour), and that gave me time to sort of regroup and get myself over to the West Coast. It just fitted into the schedule.”

The iconic par-71 layout at Riviera is a ball-striker’s paradise where long, medium and short hitters can all thrive.

“It’s a real treat when you come to a golf course like this where it’s not overly long, you don’t have to really bomb it off the tee, but it’s real strategic,” said McIlroy, a four-times Major winner.

“It’s a real thinker’s golf course and it’s a real treat to play something like this because we don’t get to play them that often anymore.”

McIlroy will be making his first PGA Tour appearance of the year this week after recording top-six finishes in his last three events on the European Tour dating back to November – all three of them in the United Arab Emirates.

“A couple of things in Dubai I wasn’t quite happy with, so I worked on those in Florida last week,” he said, referring to his tie for sixth at the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this month.

“I tweaked my driver a little bit. I felt like I was struggling to turn it over from right-to-left, so I put the loft up. I felt like the rest of my game was in pretty good shape.”

McIlroy has plenty of top-quality tournament golf on his schedule between now and the April 7th-10th Masters, including next week’s Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens and the first two World Golf Championships events of the year.

“These tournaments that we’ve got coming up, we’ve got some of the strongest fields of the year,” added McIlroy.

“This is the start of the road to the Masters and for everyone, if not thinking about it directly, it’s definitely in the back of their minds. Obviously I’d love my game to be in peak shape for Augusta in April.”

Meanwhile, world number one Jordan Spieth will look to make amends for one of the few mistakes he made in 2015 by winning this week.

Spieth was in contention for what would have been just his second PGA Tour title at Riviera Country Club 12 months ago and thought he needed to birdie the last to keep pace with the leaders.

However, in attempting to hole a chip from just off the green, the 22-year-old ran the ball eight feet past the hole and missed the par putt, which would have been good enough for a play-off after Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia both bogeyed the 17th.

“Last year it was a crazy finish and it kind of taught me a little something about this golf course,” Spieth told a pre-tournament press conference. “You just never know exactly what’s going to happen at Riviera coming down the stretch.

“I was thinking I needed to birdie 18 for a play-off. Turns out, with I think Dustin and Sergio bogeying the 17th, I ended up one out of the three-way play-off (won by James Hahn).

“So (it was) a little bizarre, but that just kind of teaches you how it works sometimes. Sometimes it’s not birdies to win. Sometimes on harder golf courses, even on a tour event and it’s a non-Major championship, sometimes par is a really good score.

“Unfortunately it’s rare, but fortunately it happens here. So it would mean a lot to win this tournament.

“For me to win on a golf course that I consider one of the top few in the world, that’s always a goal. It would be amazing.”

Spieth did not have to wait long to taste victory of course, winning the Valspar Championship just three weeks later. That was one of five victories in 2015 including the Masters, US Open and Tour Championship, the latter securing the overall FedEx Cup title and $10 million bonus.

And having already won the Tournament of Champions by eight shots in Hawaii in January, Spieth believes he can learn from all those wins in order to avoid making the kind of mistake which cost him at Riviera 12 months ago.

“When pressure comes on, I can now really relate and look back to a lot of key moments where I’ve hit shots in the past when the pressure has been on where I felt like I did what I wanted to do,” Spieth added.

“I mean, that on its own is the kind of priceless experience that I can then get up and do it again.

“I think I’ve gotten a lot better putting under pressure, but to be able to stand up and really focus in on a specific target, and work either ball flight on to that target, whether it’s driving it or striking an iron shot, that’s definitely improved when the pressure is on.”