McIlroy, despite not using the driver, achieves a good performance at the DP World Championship in India
Rory McIlroy’s strategy of leaving the driver in the locker room did not affect his ability to score, although he finished with three bogeys in the opening round of the DP World Championship India. The world number 2 started promisingly, but problems arose on the 11th hole, where he had three putts, followed by consecutive bogeys. Despite not using the driver, McIlroy birdied the two par-5s and added three more strokes in the following seven holes. However, a bogey on the eighth hole led him to finish with a 69, three under par, remaining five strokes behind the leader, Shane Lowry.This strategy didn’t work on the 8th hole, where McIlroy missed his shot, ending with a bogey. McIlroy commented that the course was “quite tricky” despite the limited distance from the tee.The driver was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker room. I was thinking about it last night before I went to bed. Sometimes, if you’re very conservative today on a par-5, you might have a 5-wood towards the green, but I’m never going to hit the driver. So I thought I had to use a 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron, and then I have a 5-wood in case I need to use it for an approach shot on a par-5.
Rory McIlroy
For his part, Lowry, who leads with eight birdies, commented that the noise of Delhi’s traffic was easier to handle than the Ryder Cup fans in New York. Lowry, playing with European captain Luke Donald and Tommy Fleetwood, had a streak of five consecutive birdies, despite the traffic noise. He finished his round with a birdie on the 18th hole.You’re just trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to get birdies on the par-5s and maybe get a couple more.
Rory McIlroy
Fleetwood and Donald finished with four under par. Keita Nakajima also stood out with five consecutive birdies in the middle of his round. Ben Griffin, who debuted in the Ryder Cup for the U.S. team, started with a 68 alongside Michael Kim, who had visa issues. Kim has already won on the European Tour this year at the French Open. This is the start of an important stage for McIlroy at the end of the year, as he also plans to play the Abu Dhabi Championship and the DP World Tour Championship, along with the Australian Open.We all had a great time and we all played pretty well, and I just got a few more birdies than them on the back nine. We could hear the horns from the road; it wasn’t as disruptive as the crowd at Bethpage. There was a bit of chat about the Ryder Cup, but at the end of the day, we’re all professional golfers and ultimately, we all want to beat each other, even though we’re friends.
Shane Lowry