Rory McIlroy is confident he has the game to thrive in the United States as he heads into his professional debut on American soil this week. The 19-year-old takes his first steps Stateside tomorrow at the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona.
McIlroy, who faces South Africa’s world number 49 Louis Oosthuizen in tomorrow’s first round matches at 5.46pm Irish time, believes that not only will his extensive matchplay experience as an amateur and Walker Cup player be a great boost to his chances in the desert this week but also that his type of game can reap rewards in America.
“I think the style of golf over here suits my game,” McIlroy said. “I hit it quite high. And I’m able to get the ball to stop pretty quickly. I’m pretty long off the tee.
“I’ve had two good looks at the golf course now and that’s nice. It’s interesting. The greens are still pretty tricky. It probably takes a little bit of time to get used to. But the course is in great shape and it looks like it’s going to be a good week.”
The competition format is familiar for McIlroy, who shot to number 16 in the world golf rankings following his maiden pro victory in the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic at the beginning of this month.
“All the amateur golf I played growing up was matchplay, playing for Ireland in the European Championships and the Home Internationals,” he added.
“Most of our amateur events in Britain are matchplay events as well, so it’s a format that we have grown up with. And I think that my game suits match play because I make quite a lot of birdies and,” he joked, “I’ll be able to throw in the odd double bogey here and there.
“It’s head to head and it gets the juices flowing. So I’m looking forward to it this week.”
Graeme McDowell is the first of three Irish players in action this week, the Portrush man facing former Masters champion Zach Johnson at 4pm.
Having visited mind guru Bob Rotella yesterday, Padraig Harrington will be hoping to find some form when he takes on local favourite at 6.45pm.
Tee Times(US unless stated, all times Irish)
3.36Lee Westwood (Eng), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha)
3.45Stewart Cink, Richard Sterne (Rsa)
3.55Anthony Kim, Wen-Tang Lin (Tai)
3.04KJ Choi (Kor), Oliver Wilson (Eng)
3.14Camilo Villegas (Col), Rodney Pampling (Aus)
3.23Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Rory Sabbatini (Rsa)
3.33Kenny Perry, Mathew Goggin (Aus)
3.42Paul Casey (Eng), Aaron Baddeley (Aus)
3.52Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera (Arg)
4.01Zach Johnson, Graeme McDowell(NIrl)
4.11Henrik Stenson (Swe), Davis Love III
4.20Justin Leonard, Andres Romero (Arg)
4.30Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Kevin Sutherland
4.39Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Shingo Katayama (Jpn)
4.49Robert Karlsson (Swe), Peter Hanson (Swe)
4.58Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Stephen Ames (Can)
5.08Ernie Els (Rsa), Soren Hansen (Den)
5.17Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson
5.27Jim Furyk, Anders Hansen (Den)
5.36Martin Kaymer (Ger), Stuart Appleby (Aus)
5.46 Rory McIlroy(NIrl), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
5.55Mike Weir (Can), Hunter Mahan
6.05Justin Rose (Eng), Boo Weekley
6.14Adam Scott (Aus), Sean O'Hair
6.24Vijay Singh (Fij), Soren Kjeldsen (Den)
6.33Ben Curtis, Luke Donald (Eng)
6.43 Padraig Harrington(Irl), Pat Perez
6.52Robert Allenby (Aus), Ross Fisher (Eng)
7.02Tiger Woods, Brendan Jones (Aus)
7.11Tim Clark (Rsa), Retief Goosen (Rsa)
7.21Sergio Garcia (Spa), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)
7.30Ian Poulter (Eng), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind)
