Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Rory Mcllroy Confident Of Becoming Youngest Open Champion
The 21 year old has missed out on the top spot in the first two majors this year but is confident to regain top for over the old course.
The Northern Ireland star picked up an impressive third place during the Dunhill Links Championship just one week after turning professional. He has since climbed up the world rankings to 9th and is positive for this challenge.
He said “It just feels like it’s the right time to go out and play well and win one of these big events,”
“I’ve played well here in the past and if I don’t let the occasion get the better of me, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to again.”
He added: “One of the things I noticed when I played here Friday and Saturday was how much different the course plays in the summer rather than when we play the Dunhill Links in October.
“The greens are a lot firmer, the fairways are a lot firmer, the ball can sort of run out a bit more – and there’s a few more bunkers off the fairway that come into play.
“The strategy that you would use in the Dunhill wouldn’t really work this week, so I’ve had to sort of change a few clubs off tees and everything and probably try to adopt a more conservative approach just to avoid all the bunkers out there that are waiting to swallow your ball up.
“I suppose playing well here in the past brings a little bit of added pressure knowing that I’m expecting myself to play well and I’m sure a lot of people are expecting me to play well.
“But I have a lot of great memories from this place and hopefully those can stand by me for the week.
“I tried to get a couple of early practice rounds in last week so that I wasn’t in any mad rush to get here. You can get swallowed up with the whole occasion and I’m just trying to stay as low profile as possible – if that’s going to be possible.”