TOUR NEWS:HE'S BACK. No, not Tiger Woods, although he too will be in the field for this week's Abu Dhabi championship in the desert.
These days most eyes are focused on a certain Rory McIlroy and the Ulsterman marks his seasonal return in an event that includes the world’s top-four along with a certain Mr Woods who is looking to work his way back towards those lofty positions that once seemed a birth right.
For McIlroy, after a winter spent between breaks at home in Belfast and with his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki, the return to competitive duty in Abu Dhabi will kick-start a year where he will set out with dual goals: firstly, to build-up to a return to the US Masters at Augusta in April and, also, to pursue Luke Donald’s top spot in the world rankings.
One of eight Irish players in the field in Abu Dhabi – along with British Open champion Darren Clarke, 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, three-time Major winner Pádraig Harrington, Michael Hoey, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie and Damien McGrane – McIlroy will be out to hit the ground running after a fine closure to 2011 that saw him finish in the top-four in five of his last six outings, including a win in Hong Kong.
As far as McIlroy is concerned, this week’s return to action gets him back to his comfort zone: inside the ropes. “The golf course is where I feel most comfortable. It’s a place where I can actually get away from everything if there is anything going on. You focus entirely on your game out there and [are] trying to shoot the best score possible.”
He continued: “You’re inside the rope and nobody can get to you. It’s just you and your caddie. I feel most like myself [when] on the golf course . . . I can’t wait [for the season to start]. Everything in the new year up to April will be geared towards the Masters. I’m going to do the exact same preparation this year leading up to it. I can’t wait to get back [to Augusta]. I obviously know my way around the golf course and I feel like I’m going back with a point to prove to myself. I’d love to get into contention again.”
If that meltdown in the final round of the US Masters actually proved to be a catalyst for an extraordinary season that saw him win a maiden Major at the US Open, McIlroy – the world number three – returns to a desert course where he traditionally plays well. He was runner-up to Martin Kaymer last year.
Of the octet of Irishmen in the Abu Dhabi field, McIlroy, McDowell and Lowry are the three making their seasonal reappearances, with the other five having dusted off the winter cobwebs in tournaments in South Africa in recent weeks. Harrington, who has moved up one spot in the world rankings to 88th in his early-season drive to break into the top 64 and claim a starting place in next month’s WGC-Accenture matchplay, moved on from South Africa to Abu Dhabi confessing that putting remains the area of his game that is of most concern.
“I felt I hit a lot of very good shots [at the Volvo Golf Champions in Fancourt] and the work that I was doing at the end of last year and during my break seems to have paid off. I thought my chipping was good, which I was very happy about as this is usually an area where rustiness shows up. The area that I was least comfortable with was my putting. I struggled most of the week with the putter. A lot of it was trusting my reading of the greens, which is not too unusual for me in the first week or two of the season,” said Harrington.
Another area that Harrington intends to work on is with his routines, as he is due to link-up with coach Dave Alred, the newest member of his backroom team, in Abu Dhabi. “By their nature, routines are routine and boring. The only way to master them is to continually do them over and over . . . all in all, I’m coming away [from Fancourt] with a lot of positives. Yes, I am disappointed with my last round but it showed up what I need to work [on]. If it had gone well, I wouldn’t have noticed the faults in my routines as easily. It is up to me to spend time on them and ensure they do become routine.”
Meanwhile, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal has benefited from a decision to increase the size of the field in Abu Dhabi from 126 to 129. The Spaniard was second reserve until the decision was made to add three extra places to the field. Alex Cejka and Niclas Fasth were the other beneficiaries.
Mark Wilson overcame a shaky start to claim his fifth PGA Tour title in the Humana Challenge on Sunday. Wilson saw a three-shot lead quickly wiped out in the final round on the Palmer Course at PGA West, a front nine of 37 allowing a host of players back into contention.
But the 37-year-old recovered his composure to play the last eight holes in four under par for a closing 69 and 24-under-par total of 264. That gave Wilson a two-shot win over fellow Americans Johnson Wagner – who won the Sony Open in Hawaii last week – John Mallinger and Robert Garrigus.
