GOLF ROUND-UP:WORLD NUMBER nine Rory McIlroy has targeted a major victory within four years. Twelve months ago the Holywood, Co Down, player was aged 19 years and 273 days when he landed his first European Tour title by winning the Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club.
Since then McIlroy has collected 11 top-10 finishes on the circuit, including eight in his last nine events, and was second to England’s Lee Westwood in the 2009 money-list.
“I am gaining experience every year and by the time I’m 24, 25, I will have played in 20, 25 majors . . . so hopefully by then I should know how to finish them off,” he said in Dubai yesterday as he prepares to defend his title this week.
“That’s the ultimate goal, to win a major championship and try and become the best player I can be.”
McIlroy said he had learnt a great deal since making his Dubai breakthrough.
“I’ve gained a lot of experience since I won here last year and I’ve put myself in a lot of great positions to win golf tournaments,” he said.
“I haven’t quite finished them off, but I’ve learnt from those experiences and feel as if I’m a more rounded player. I feel as if when I get myself into those positions now that I feel a lot more comfortable in final rounds and final groups.
“When I look back on the last 12 months, it has been very satisfactory,” he said. “It was a year when everything was new to me.
“The majors were new and the World Golf Championships were new and I felt as if I handled it pretty well.
“I’ve gained a lot of experience in them and I feel the experience will help me a lot this year and hopefully I’ll perform even better in them.”
The Dubai Classic starts tomorrow.
McIlroy leads a strong Irish field that includes Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie, Graeme McDowell, Damien McGrane, Michael Hoey, Gareth Maybin and another Co Down professional, Stephen Deane, who teaches at the Emirates Golf Club.
Meanwhile, Colin Montgomerie believes a Ryder Cup without Tiger Woods is diminished.
“I do think it will be diminished if he doesn’t play (in October), but at the same time that’s up to him and America,” said Montgomerie.
“Any event he enters is a bigger and better event because of him and I hope he does play.”
The Scot also spoke of Phil Mickelson’s use of a 20-year-old Ping-Eye 2 wedge with square grooves last week.
“It’s for the authorities to get together and decide that this is really not the way to go,” he said. “He has found a loophole in the laws and he’s using it, but it’s not really what we’re looking for.”
The Ping-Eye 2 wedge used by Mickelson and a handful of other players, although with square grooves, is deemed legal because of a lawsuit won by its manufacturer over the USGA in 1990.
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was scheduled to discuss the grooves dispute with players last night in the build-up to this week’s US event in Los Angeles.
