Last week Rory McIlroy spoke about winning at legacy venues going forward as part of his new motivation in his post Grand Slam winning era. This week he has a chance to add Riviera to his trophy laden map.
A handshake from Tiger Woods wouldn’t be so bad either if he was to claim the Genesis Invitational and he is certainly making more than enough birdies and eagles to do so, it’s just about ensuring he has shaken off the early season rust in time for the PGA Tour’s second Signature Event.
“I think I’m just sort of working through that first little bit of the year where you’re trying to shake a little bit of rust off and you’re trying to sort of find your footing a little bit and sort of where your game is,” said McIlroy who carded 26 birdies and two eagles at Pebble Beach last week but was plagued by three double bogeys and a triple as his title defence never got going.
The Masters champion who will be visiting Augusta with his father Gerry to tee it up with the chairman next week, doesn’t see so many traps around Riviera compared to Pebble so he hopes that will decrease the possibility of those destructive numbers on the card.
“Felt like I learned quite a bit about my game last week, played well for a lot of it. Obviously made some big numbers which kept me from being right in contention on Sunday, but I feel like there’s enough good in there to be encouraged going into this week.
“I think making the birdies probably. I think it’s — it depends. Like there’s more opportunities to make big numbers last week than there is this week. There’s not hazards, there’s not water. Obviously it presents a different challenge in itself, this golf course, but I think the fact that I’m hitting a lot of good shots and hitting it close and converting a lot of putts, that has to give me confidence for not just this week but going forward.”
Although Riviera stands on a list of golf courses with St Andrews that McIlroy would love to win at, he has his gripes with the layout. The par-3 4th was lengthened by 40 yards to a staggering 273 yards and he just cannot fathom why.
“I don’t think 4 plays any differently, you’re just hitting a slightly longer club. I actually think it’s a horrible change.
“And 18, yeah, 18 played downwind today and I hit driver, 8-iron. So certainly it’s a bigger hole than it was, so 18’s probably the better change, yeah.
“15 percent of the field hit the green last time when it was played at its original yardage at 230. Like if you want it to be a 275-yard par-3, you have to change the apron leading up onto the green.
“It can’t be kikuyu, it has to be another type of grass that can help you run it onto the green because again, in the right conditions, you try to fly that ball on the green with a 3-iron, it’s going to land — it’s going to finish up on the fifth tee box. That’s sort of what I mean by why it’s not a great change.”
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