Rory McIlroy is among the elite of the elite when it comes to hitting driver off the tee. And he took his biggest weapon out of the bag Thursday in India.
There was no driver in the bag for McIlroy during an opening 3-under 69 at the DP World India Championship at Delhi Golf Club. Among courses professionals play across the world, the course is one of of the most narrow, so McIlroy didn’t want to tempt himself into getting in trouble off the tee when the club is just not needed.
“Dog was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, there’s no — I was sort of thinking about it last night before I went to bed. Well, sometimes if you’re really conservative off a par-5 today, you might have like a 5-wood into the green, but I’m never going to hit driver, so I just thought I’ve got to 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron all the way through, and then I’ve got a 5-wood just in case I need to hit it for an approach shot on a par-5. But I just don’t see any hole out there that I hit to hit it more than say 260, 270 off the tee.”
McIlroy ranked ninth in the field in driving accuracy during the first round, finding the short grass 78.6 percent of the time. He also avraged 274.5 off the tee, good for 38th in the field.
He trails good friend Shane Lowry by five shots after the opening day, where McIlroy carded six birdies but also had three blemishes in his opening 69. However, the leader in the Race to Dubai standings is trying not to be fooled by the challenging layout.
“It’s pretty tricky. You’re just really trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to pick off birdies on the par-5s and maybe pick up a couple more,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, it’s a tricky golf course.”
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