Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Ben Griffin, Keita Nakajima and Rahil Gangjee share their thoughts on the DP World Tour’s India Championship, explaining how Lowry’s style meshes with Delhi Golf Club, why Nakajima likes playing in India so much and what it means for Gangjee to play in front of home fans. #Golf #GolfCentral #DPWorldTour #GolfChannel
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Lowry, Nakajima, Gangjee share significance of playing at Delhi GC | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Chrome Tour Golf Ball from Callaway. Rory, nice solid first round out there. First impressions on the golf course. Yeah, it’s uh it’s pretty tricky. You know, you’re you’re just really trying to, you know, be as conservative as possible off the tea and then, you know, you’re trying to pick off birdies on the par fives and then maybe pick up a couple more. But, um, yeah, it’s a it’s a tricky golf course. I thought some of the the whole locations early on were really tricky. You know, I think you play a practice round or proam and the pins are all in the middle of the green and then you get on a tournament day and they start to tuck them away a little bit and course definitely played a little um a little tougher than I than I thought than I expected it to be. And did I see that the big dog was out of the bag for the day? Dog was out of the bag having a sleep in the locker. Um yeah, there just there’s no I I I was sort of thinking about it last night before I went to bed. I was like, well, I sometimes if I you’re really conservative off a par five TE, you might need like a fivewood in to the green, but I’m never going to hit driver. So, I just thought I I’ve got a two iron, three iron, four iron all the way through. And then I’ve got a fivewood just in case I need to hit it for an approach shot in a par five, but just don’t see any hole out there that you need to get it more than sort of 260, 270 off the tea. Now that you’ve seen the course and it’s a little harder than you expected, how have you sort of calibrated maybe a different approach ahead of tomorrow or in your mind what you feel about scoring? Yeah. Um I I think it’s similar strategy that you know to what I did today off especially off the tea. You just have to get the ball in the fairway. Um the rough is unpredictable. You get a lot of flyers like I did at the last hole there. So, and then yeah, being a, you know, maybe being a little less aggressive with with approach shots and just getting it on the right side of the pin. It’s hard. 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 down grain get very, very quick. So, leaving yourself below the hole is pretty important as well. Plan for the rest of the day. Um, I’m going to go and um relax. I think it was an early start this morning. It was up at 4:30. So, uh, relax, might go to the spa, might do something, you know, and then, um, I’ve I’ve got a I’ve got a dinner tonight. So, um, yeah, just a a relaxed afternoon. Nice. Well, enjoy. We look forward to seeing you back out there tomorrow. Thanks so much, Shane. A brilliant first round 64. Uh, what of all the brilliants out there on the golf course are you most pleased with today? Um, I put it nicely today. Uh, I played nice, gave myself a lot of chances and then started to convert a few in the back nine. It was pretty nice, you It was ah look it was a really nice group with Luke and Tommy. We we all had a great time and we all played pretty good. So I just rolled off a few birdies few more birdies than they did on the back nine and uh you know 60 64 is a really nice score. It’s uh you know it’s it’s not that hard when you hit it in play out there but you start missing fairways it becomes quite tricky. So uh yeah I’m pretty happy with that. We always speculate at home how much of a difference a group makes a comfortable group playing alongside your friends but in your own words what difference does that make to you? Yeah, when I saw the draw, I was really happy, really excited, you know, get out there to to the lads. Obviously, we’ve we’ve had some good things happen the last few weeks and uh it was just nice. Um, you know, I’ve always loved playing with Tommy. I actually haven’t played with Luke that much in tournaments, so uh but obviously I know him pretty well and um yeah, we all fed off each other and it was nice. How much of that was some Ryder Cup chat out there reminiscing? There was a little bit uh yeah, a little bit talking about um you know, we could hear the horns from the from the road. It was it was uh not as offputting as a bet page crowd, but um yeah, there’s a little bit of RER Cup chat out there, but um you know, I suppose but at the end of the day, we’re we’re all professional golfers and we want to shoot the best scores we can. So um you know, and ultimately we all want to beat each other, too. So even though we’re friends, we want to get out there and uh you know, shoot better score than the other person. Yeah, friendly competition is always healthy. Um and then just a final question on your game and you said that um in terms of putting that’s feeling great. Is everything else just feeling like it’s clicking and coming together for you? Yeah, look, I I feel like um this type of golf course suits me. Um I spend half the year moaning about golf courses that are too wide. So when I get somewhere like here, I need to, you know, take advantage of it and I did today and hopefully I can keep doing that for the rest of the week. Brilliant stuff. Thank you, Shane. Well done today. Ben, fantastic first round for underpar. Uh Rory was just saying to us there that perhaps it played a little harder in under tournament um environment than it did in practice rounds. Do you feel similar or given your scoring perhaps not? Um, it’s funny. Every golfer is different. Some people play better when they’re casually at home or in practice rounds. I feel like I’m the worst golfer when it comes to like me playing at home or playing practice rounds or playing proams. Like I rarely shoot under par in proams, I’ll be honest. And I think when I get into tournament road, I kind of lock in a little bit more with targets and everything like that. Um, I’d say my strategy was pretty similar to the practice rounds. I think some guys tend to maybe lay back. I just kept hitting the 3-wood pretty good and and put it out there. So, a whole like number nine, a lot of guys are hitting iron off that T. put through down there and was able to have a short iron in and made birdie. So, um I think it depends on the holes. Um but certainly in tournament conditions, this is a very uh very challenging golf course. You you think about your strategy a little bit more than maybe if you’re playing more casually, you might hit driver on a few holes. If you’re playing here for fun and in a tournament, it’s not necessarily worth it. I think if you were to look at the stats, it’s uh it makes sense to just keep it in the fairway, hit irons, and have a lot of mid irons into the greens. And um feel like all of us did a pretty good job of that today. and we’re all able to shoot under par in our group. And obviously playing in India for the first time, different grasses, different grains, reacting in different ways. What are some of the takeaways that you would have from your first round that perhaps you’re going to put into play for tomorrow? Yeah, the conditions are are tough. The rough is really challenging if you put it in the rough. It’s really hard to not only get it to the green, but you know, land it on and keep it on the green. You know, even Rory there on the number nine was in the first cut and caught a jumper lie. um because it just sits down a little bit and um it’s tough to judge and you know I think he hit a 9 iron from like 200 yards and still went over the green. So it’s crazy to think like that cuz if he was you know a step further left he was probably hitting a seven or six iron from the fairway. So uh it’s a challenging course you need to be in the fairway. Um if you’re in the rough you got to make sure you have a good angle into the uh into the pins. Um felt like I did a good pretty good job of keeping it in the fairway most of the day. I was in the rough a couple times, but a couple of those holes were par fives where I was laying up um and it all worked out and said it’ll post a good number and uh hopefully can keep the pedal down the rest of the week. Yeah, you’ve posted a good number early on. You’ve got the rest of the day. What’s your plan? Yeah, uh I’ll probably uh practice putting a little bit. It was a little u inconsistent in the middle. I puted pretty well from mid-range. Made a lot of mid-range putts. Made the a good amount of birdie putts that you maybe don’t necessarily expect, but you’re trying to make. Um but I need to clean up a little bit from short range. I missed a couple there in the middle. So, I’ll do a little practice, probably relax a little bit at the hotel. It’s an early morning, so maybe take a small nap. I know my caddy and Victor and his caddy are going to Old Delhi later this afternoon. I don’t know if I’m going to make it with them, but they’re going to go explore. Um, whether I go with them or not, I look forward to hearing some stories or experiencing uh experiencing that with them. But, um, yeah, it’s been amazing so far here in Delhi. The experience has been amazing. The fans are great. Uh, tons of fans out there following our group. It was a lot of fun. Awesome. Well, well done today, Ben and enjoy the rest of your day. Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh Kita, great round today and you got off to a really hot start. It was a seven under total. Four birdies in a row to start with. How confident were you feeling with your game heading into this week? Oh yeah, today was pretty sold day. So I made it eight birdies good for this golf course and happy to. And your game was feeling good heading into this week. Yeah, I’m feeling good. So I played a PG tour in Japan in last week then get some some energy for this week. So yeah and I love Indian golf course you know. Yeah. What is it about Indian golf courses and Delhi golf club that you love so much. Yeah, I played well. I play well in India but I don’t know why I play well so this difficult golf course but when I come come to India so my golf is getting better but I don’t know why. Well, we enjoyed watching you out there today. Best of luck tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you so much great first round five under par. Um tell me a little bit about how it was out there for you both in terms of how you’re feeling with your game and how it was playing at this level in front of home fans. Uh obviously it’s great to finish 500 on the first round. Um the game is has been okay last week but before that not so great. So I’m really really um glad that it turned out the way it did today. Um obviously we’re my my caddy and myself we were just out there just trying to have some fun. Um I’ve been a little too serious with the game in the past eight months. Um not been having fun. Uh yes last week and this week has been fun. It’s uh I guess this is the way to play golf. [Music]
