Rory McIlroy didn’t just keep the headcover on his driver on Thursday at Delhi Golf Club, he left the big stick out of the bag altogether.
“Dog was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker,” McIlroy said after opening the DP World India Championship in 3-under 69.
“I was sort of thinking about it last night before I went to bed,” said McIlroy, who carried just one wood, a 5-wood. “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.”
The conservative decision paid off, at least in terms of accuracy off the tee. McIlroy hit 78.6 percent of his fairways, ranking ninth in the field. He averaged 274.5 yards off the tee, still 38th best. He only played the par-5s in 1 under, however, bogeying the par-5 eighth to offset one of the two other par-5 birdies he carded on the day.
“I thought some of the hole locations early on were really tricky,” McIlroy said. “You play a practice round or a pro-am, the pins are all in the middle of the green, and then you get to tournament day, and they start to tuck them away a little bit, and of course definitely played a little tougher than I expected it to today.”
McIlroy’s opening round left him five shots back of pal Shane Lowry and in a share of 17th. He expected a similar gameplan on Friday.
“You just have to get the ball in the fairway,” McIlroy said. “The rough is unpredictable. You get a lot of fliers like I did the last two there. Yeah, maybe being a little bit less aggressive with approach shots and getting it on the right side of the pin. The greens are so grainy that uphill putts are very slow, but then if you get it above the hole, the downhill putts with the downgrain get very, very quick, so leaving yourself below the hole is pretty important, as well.”
