Rory McIlroy has enlisted the help of Luke Donald for putting tips ahead of the Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club this week.
The 35-year-old world No.2 heads to The Open after finishing in a tie for fourth at last week’s Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, four strokes behind winner Robert MacIntyre.
But despite returning closer to his origins, McIlroy said it has taken some time to refamiliarize himself with links conditions, in particular the speed of the greens.
“I feel like preparations have been going well. I feel like preparations probably started last week at the Renaissance,” McIlroy said.
“Just getting myself familiar again with links conditions, links turf, green speeds. Obviously we play a majority of our golf in the States and green surfaces that are quite different to here. So just trying to get, I guess, reacclimated to that.
“Obviously I grew up playing a lot of links golf, but when you only come back to play once or twice a year, it just takes you a little time to adapt.”
McIlroy said he turned to Europe Ryder Cup captain Donald for some putting advice.
“I don’t like to tinker too much with the putter. Fax [Brad Faxon] was out there walking with me this morning, and so was Luke Donald. I asked Luke [for advice]. I really try to focus on the strike more than anything else here and put a good roll on it because any putt here that’s mis-struck just doesn’t get to the hole.
“So I sort of picked Luke’s brain a little bit, and he always said he liked to focus on the tempo of his stroke and really, if anything, make it a little shorter and a little brisker on greens like this. So that’s something that [I’ve worked on], you know, the strike and maybe just think a little bit more about the tempo of the stroke, two good things this week.”
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McIlroy, who will be looking to break a 10-year Major drought, said he is happy with where his game is after a bit of “rust” last week.
“Game’s in really good shape,” he said. “Had a nice reset after Pinehurst that was needed and felt like I shook off a little bit of the rust last week and played okay. Felt like I probably could have given myself more of a chance to win the tournament.
“I thought it was a solid week. Again, it’s like one eye on preparing for this week, but another eye on trying to get into contention as well.
“Overall I’ve been in the UK now for a couple of weeks, and it’s felt nice to get back over here and get back into the swing of things.”
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