Rory McIlroy believes tournament organisers of the Crown Australian Open must consider rescheduling the event in order to attract a stronger field and deliver on its potential.
McIlroy, making his first appearance since in the event since 2015, was the main attraction amongst the home favourites at Royal Melbourne and certainly entertained and baffled the packed galleries in equal measure as he eventually finished in a tie for 14th place, eight shots behind Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
The Holywood man has been an advocate of a global schedule and is pencilled in to return to the Australian Open next year. But this week the event clashed with another DP World Tour event in the Nedbank Golf Challenge and Tiger Woods’ hosted Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
He feels the Australian Open should stand alone in its own window in order to attract an even better field in future.
“I’ve been excited to come back down here for a while, it’s been over 10 years since I played in the Australian Open,” McIlroy said after his final round.
“This is a golf tournament that has got so much potential and I think it showed a little bit of that this week. There’s still a ways to go.
“I would love to have a few more players come down and play. But it’s hard. There’s three tournaments going on in the schedule this week.
“There needs to be conversations had with people much more important than me that set the schedules and do all that sort of stuff.
“Hopefully the Australian Open can find a date that accommodates everyone and everyone can at least have the option to come down and play.”
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