‘Hit the ground running’: Rory McIlroy readies for busy stretch

Rory McIlroy said he felt like he had a quiet fall, but he’ll make up for it over these next two months.

McIlroy makes his first PGA Tour start of 2021 at the Farmers Insurance Open on Thursday, which is also his second straight start in a stretch that will include seven events in eight weeks. Last week he played on the European Tour — his first start since he tied for fifth at the November Masters — and held the 54-hole lead in Abu Dhabi before finishing third.

Now he’s at Torrey Pines for the Farmers Insurance Open to resume that busy stretch. He was third at the Farmers last year and fifth in 2019.

“I had a pretty quiet spell there for a few months. I just wanted to get back out and play,” McIlroy told reporters on Wednesday. “I felt like I sort of stopped last year on quite a positive note the way I played at Augusta and I just wanted to try to keep that going into the start of this year. I feel like the more I play, the more I’ll get comfortable with my game and know where it is. Yeah, I just thought it was a good opportunity to sort of hit the ground running this week.”

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McIlroy will make his third straight start next week when he plays the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the first time in his career — “I’ve heard the golf course should suit my style of play,” he says — and then skip the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’ll start again the next week at the Genesis Invitational and play four straight capped with the Players Championship. That leaves three more events before the Masters April 8-11. He’ll likely play the one in the middle, the WGC Match Play, which he’s entered since 2009.

“I’m just trying to play the golf course that’s in front of me this week, which is Torrey Pines, and next week I’ll try to do the same at Scottsdale,” McIlroy said. “It’s not, I mean, it’s hard because you’re always assessing your game and saying, OK, how is it going, is it progressing, with trying to get yourself in the best possible state for April, but I don’t think anything can put you in a better place than playing well at golf tournaments you’re playing and getting into contention and winning. I think winning and being in contention and playing good rounds of golf, that’s the best way to prepare for going into major championships.”

McIlroy’s first round of the Farmers begins at 1:40 p.m. ET on Thursday on the South Course. He’s grouped with Brooks Koepka and Matthew Wolff for the first two rounds.