A year ago, he took over the world. This week, Rory McIlroy would settle for something a bit more mundane — like lasting a full four rounds of a golf tournament.
Last year, McIlroy dramatically staked his claim as the No. 1 player in the world with his victory at the Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. As he readies to defend his title this week, McIlroy is seeking to find at least some of the form that got him to the top a year ago.
He enters the tournament, which begins tomorrow, having played just three competitive rounds of tournament golf this season after missing the cut in Abu Dhabi in his first start and being eliminated in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship last week in Arizona.
McIlroy took advantage of his early ouster in the Match Play to participate in a friendly match with Tiger Woods, the No. 2 ranked player in the world who also lost in the first round in Arizona.
The two played a 36-hole match on Sunday — the day of the Match Play final between winner Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan — at Medalist Golf Club, Woods’ exclusive home club in Hobe Sound, Fla.
“We thought we would play our own match play final,’’ McIlroy said jokingly to reporters yesterday at the Honda Classic. “We teed off at about 8 a.m. and I was home by 1:30 p.m. We played quick. He [Woods] putts with the pin in. It was speed golf. It was really enjoyable.’’
McIlroy said Woods won the first 18-hole match and he won the second. The two played with Ahmad Rashad, a Golf Channel “Morning Drive’’ host and a friend of Woods’ who lives in the area. Rashad said he shot 74, and he said Woods and McIlroy shot something in the mid 60s.