McIlroy confesses he didn’t play well

McIlroy was the only golfer among 60 to go without a bogey on the first nine on the Jumeirah Golf. He pointed out that there was no one racing ahead by miles in the tournament.

Dubai — The Word Number one Rory McIlroy confessed that he didn’t play well enough to win the Race to Dubai finale at the Earth.

Rory McIlroy. Photo by Mukesh Kamal/ Khaleej Times

“I just didn’t play well enough to win this week, and if I had won by playing like that, it would have been a bit of a surprise,” the Northern Ireland golfer said after officially coroneted as the World number golfer and winner of the Race to Dubai title.

“It could have been different. But at the same time, I never expected 14 under to have a remote chance of winning this golf tournament,” he said when asked to sum his feelings.

McIlroy was the only golfer among 60 to go without a bogey on the first nine on the Jumeirah Golf Estates’ spectacular the Earth course but his back-to-back double bogeys on the 11^th and 12^th on the third day hurt his title chances a great deal as he conjured up an overall 20 birdies. He pointed out that there was no one racing ahead by miles in the tournament. “It just seemed like no one really took the tournament by the scruff of the neck and went with it. The two guys, Rafa (Cabrera-Bello) and Henrik (Stenson), were on 16 for quite a while, and sort of stayed there.”

Although he agreed that he didn’t quite play well this week, McIlroy took positives like his consistency from the last event of the European Tour. “It’s a really big positive, not just going into next year, but going into the rest of my career. Because in seasons gone by, a bad week for me would have been middle of the pack or if there was a cut, maybe battling to make the cut where now it’s okay, I set myself up with a good score on Thursday and I played well.”

“But Friday, Saturday and today weren’t quite as good. The level of consistency is there, and I didn’t feel like I played great at all today, and still went around bogey free, shot 68. It’s not too bad,” he reckons.

“So a lot of positives heading into 2015 and yeah, something I’m really pleased about this year is that consistency that I’ve shown in my golf. I haven’t finished outside the Top 25. My last few results have been very consistent, very good, and a lot of good stuff going into next year,” he reiterated as a parting shot.

sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com