Rory McIlroy feels better about game ahead of Wells Fargo return
Thursday 2 May 2019 13:25, UK
Rory McIlroy feels he has rectified a couple of minor issues in his game ahead of his return to action at the Wells Fargo Championship.
McIlroy makes his first start since a disappointing performance at the Masters, where the Northern Irishman fell short in his latest bid for a career Grand Slam with a tied-21st finish at Augusta.
The 29-year-old arrives at Quail Hollow as the only two-time winner of the event and with seven top-10s on the PGA Tour in 2019, with McIlroy keen to build on a strong start to the calendar year.
"I'm excited to be playing again after a couple of weeks off," McIlroy said on Wednesday. "I've got a busy stretch coming up and hopefully I'll start off with a good tournament this week.
"One of the good things about having two weeks off is that you have time to delve into a couple of things. There were a few particular shots that I struggled with that week [at the Masters].
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"I just went back and looked at the swings that I made and I noticed a couple of things in my swing that were sort of going off. I had a good few days with my coach Michael Bannon last week and we worked on a few things.
"Aiming so far in either direction that you're playing for a big curve or a big miss has never really been my game. I just sort of delved into that a little, worked on a couple of mechanics and feel a little bit better about it coming into this week."
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This week's appearance is the first of five in seven weeks for McIlroy and the world No 4, who is playing alongside Sergio Garcia and Tony Finau for the first two rounds, is relishing the upcoming run of tournaments.
"I don't view this as this big week or that big week, it's a stretch of golf coming up and I'm excited about that," McIlroy added. I'm playing here, then up at Bethpage [for the PGA Championship].
"I think it would be a little different if you were going from the Masters to the US Open, because they're two completely different tests. I would assume that Bethpage is going to feel like a normal PGA Tour set-up.
"You're not really going to have to do anything differently. I don't know if guys are going to go up early and look at the course or not, but I'm not planning to. I've never done that for a PGA before and I've done pretty well at them, so I'm just treating it like any other event.
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"Then after that, I'm playing Memorial, Canada and then the US Open. I've been pathetic at the US Open, so I've changed that up and am going to make that my third week in a row."
Watch the Wells Fargo Championship throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage begins with Featured Groups on Thursday from midday on Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports Main Event.
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