McIlroy thinks Chambers Bay ‘sets up well’ for him
Today was Rory McIlroy’s turn to answer the burning questions we all wanted to know the answer to. Like does he feel the same confidence as Lebron being ranked No. 1 in the world and his eating habits when leading a tournament after 54-holes. To check out the entire interview with answers to those riveting questions and more click here.
As for his first impressions of Chambers Bay, McIlroy had this to say, “as I think with a lot of people, I really didn’t know what to expect when I got here. I got to the course on Saturday morning, and I mean it’s a pure links golf course. Every part of this golf course is fescue. You get fescue in the United States just on sort of the surrounding areas of the golf course, but here fairways, greens, aprons, everything, everything is fescue. It’s really like playing an Open Championship in the United States. That’s what it’s going to be like this week, apart from the fact that it’s about 20 degrees warmer. I really like the golf course. I think it sets up well for my game. You’ve got to be aggressive off the tee. You’ve got to hit driver. I think it’s a course where you’re going to see a lot of guys hit fairways and hit greens. But when you hit greens, you can still be 50, 60 feet away from the pin. So if you can drive the ball well and your pace putting and long putting is sharp, I think they’re going to be two really key things this week to be successful.”
When he was asked if the course truly does play like a links course he said, “Oh, yeah, yeah, it plays more like a links course than some links courses. I mean, it’s so fast, so firm. It reminds me of 2013 at Muirfield at the Open. Was it ’06 at Hoylake when Tiger won there? It reminds me like that. The course is getting burned out, it’s getting dry. It’s a pure links test this week.”
Mother Nature can throw curveballs at superintendents and players equally and McIlroy is trying to get in practice rounds in as many conditions as possible before the tournament.
“Yeah, I teed off pretty early on Saturday and Sunday. So I saw the course when it wasn’t playing quite at its firmest or fieriest, but I’ve been able to play the course in a couple of different wind conditions which I think is important. I think the north wind is going to come back for a couple of days over the tournament. So to be able to play the course in that wind was — it was good for preparation. And then today I’m actually going to go out a little the later on just to try to get the course as fiery as it possibly can, just to see what it’s like. I’m hoping I’m off pretty late at the weekend. I want to see how the course plays at that point.”