Rory McIlroy says Royal Melbourne ‘probably not the best course’ ahead of Australian Open
Talk about endearing yourself to the locals. Australian Open drawcard Rory McIlroy couldn’t help himself when he was asked for his opinion of Royal Melbourne, where this year’s event is being played.
Rory McIlroy knew he was getting into dangerous territory but had to be honest when quizzed about where Royal Melbourne sat among the world’s best golf courses.
There was a long pause as the Masters champion considered his response before he replied: “I don’t want the membership to take this bad . . . it’s probably not the best course in Melbourne.”
Talk about dropping a bomb.
The ego-driven chest-pumping which goes on along the Sandbelt about which club has the best course in town has been going on for decades.
To his credit McIlroy quickly added: “But it’s certainly in the top 10 in the world.”
For the record the Northern Irishman prefers Kingston Heath, the course 13km down the road which will host next year’s Australian Open and is a big reason why he has committed to back-to-back trips Down Under in consecutive years.
When he arrived on Monday, the first thing he did was went and played a couple of holes at four of the Sandbelt courses — Kingston Heath, Commonwealth, Victoria and Metropolitan - before having an extended look around Royal Melbourne.
He then went and had a hit of tennis at Melbourne Park where he told Tennis Australia officials he’d like to come back for a proper look around at some point.
On Tuesday he ramped up his preparation with nine holes at RM before taking in the full 18 of the composite course in Wednesday’s Pro-Am with the consensus being he still has a bit of figuring out about how he attacks the tournament over the next four days.
“I watched this (place) on TV and I didn’t anticipate how many blind tee shots there were going to be, it takes a little bit to figure out,” McIlroy said.
“It’s certainly not straightforward. I think as well, it probably plays better in the southerly wind rather than a northerly wind. Some of the shorter holes are down wind and it plays a little funky then, but if you get the southerly wind, then it gets back into the wind, then they play really good.
“So it’s probably not a fair reflection on the golf course playing it in this wind. It would be good to play it in a few other directions, but it’s obviously an amazing golf course.”
One club which won’t be pulled out of the bag too much over the first two days is the driver with McIlroy wary about getting bitten by the course which is a lot shorter than what he’s used to on the US PGA Tour.
“I mean, it certainly gives you options and I think if I knew the golf course better and was more comfortable on it, I’d probably be more inclined to hit more club off the tee because I’d be more comfortable with my mind,” he said.
“But today, even on the (350m) 15th hole for example, I had a six iron off the tee because it just, the way visually the hole just looks like you hit it up the left and it sort of feeds down to the right and then you hit a wedge in.
“But Cam Smith was playing behind me and he’s a driver up close to the green. So yeah, certainly different ways to play it, but I’m going to have to try to get the first couple of rounds over me and figure it out as I go. And maybe then I can start to play a little bit more aggressive at the weekend if I feel a bit more comfortable.”
McIlroy won the 2013 Australian Open at Royal Sydney, taking down Adam Scott on the final hole, and has a great affinity with the tournament. He believes a lot more overseas players need to feel the love too.
The problem being there are too many tournaments at the same time with three this weekend which divides the world’s best golfers.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is playing the Tiger Woods tournament in the Bahamas while the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa offers five times the prize money to the winner than the Australian Open.
“I think because there’s so much golf and there’s so many tournaments, the eyeballs are divided and the interest in every one of those tournaments this week is probably not as high as it should be,” McIlroy said.
“So I think this tournament in particular because of the history, because of the tradition, deserves to be a standalone tournament, a week on its own, and hopefully one day they could put together a schedule where the biggest and best tournaments in the world, and the oldest and the ones with the most heritage, can be elevated and stand on their own.”
To finish his 15-minute press conference, the five-time major winner was asked if you could only play one par-three for the rest of your life, where would it be?
The fifth on the Royal Melbourne West course was thrown up as a possibility but instead McIlroy doubled down.
“Honestly, the one par-three I’d want to play for the rest of my life is . . . is it the spare hole at Kingston Heath? The one that’s right in the middle of the course. The 10th. That to me is honestly my favourite par-three in the world.”
Ouch.
McIlroy starts his opening round as the third group off on Thursday morning from the 10th tee at 7.05am playing with Scott and Aussie rising star Min Woo Lee.
Originally published as Rory McIlroy says Royal Melbourne ‘probably not the best course’ ahead of Australian Open
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