Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood flank the DP World India Championship trophy with Luke Donald, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Shiv Kapur, Ben Griffin and Brian Harman at the Delhi Golf Club. Image courtesy DP World Tour.
By Rahul Banerji
It is a year he has won the Masters, completed the career Grand Slam and helped retain the Ryder Cup on US soil. After all that, Rory McIlroy is still enthusiastic about his maiden foray to India.
Overwhelming favourite at the inaugural $4 million DP World India Championship (DPWIC), the world number two told reporters at the Delhi Golf Club that coming to India had ticked off a long-pending box.
“India is a country that I’ve wanted to travel to for a long time. It’s a very vibrant place. I haven’t had a chance to see a lot of the country or a lot of the city, but the welcome has been incredible.
“I’m excited to play a golf tournament in a place that I’ve never played before. Eighteen-odd years into a professional career and to still be able to do things for the first time is something that excites me.
He then took on a flood of questions ranging from the Ryder Cup result at Bethpage Black, to thoughts on where golf was headed to his likely further India visits, particularly to play the DLF course. Excerpts:
On playing the Indian Open
“It’s hard, because the Indian Open, is it March or April time? March? It’s such a hard time of the year to make it work. We’re over in the States playing the Players or Bay Hill or getting ready for the Masters.
“It’s hard to travel across all those time zones and come back again and be in the right place physically and mentally to try to go into the first major of the year.
“I’d love to play the DLF. I think it’s become, like, this infamous golf course around the world, just the bunkering, and that 17th hole seems to be just an absolute menace of a golf hole.
“I’d love to get there and play at some point. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it happen this week.
“But again, if it was something where I come back next year to this event, or at least I’ll know the golf course here.
“So it might give me a free day to go and play the DLF on the Monday or the Tuesday.”
On whet he would like on an India visit
“I’d love to go watch a cricket match. I don’t think there’s anything on until next month maybe. I’d love to come back and do that. I mean, I’m a bit of a sicko; I love sitting down and watching Test matches.
“I’m going to be in Australia later this year, and The Ashes is going to be on. So that’s something I’m quite excited — I don’t think I’ll be able to get to a game but I’d love to do that.
“Obviously the Taj Mahal, love to come back at some time in years to come, bring back the family and experience that together.
“It (India) is obviously a very, very big country and a lot to see. We’re just around Delhi but you head south, and you head to a lot of other wonderful places. I
“ hear down on the sort of southwest coast is beautiful. There’s so much to see. It’s such a big country.
I guess my immediate thing I’m hoping for right now, as you say, play a first good two days and at least be here for the weekend and hopefully enjoy the weekend after that.”
On his planningf for the DGC course
“I’d say that the next time I hit my driver will be in Abu Dhabi. I don’t think I’ll hit a driver this week. I just don’t feel like the risk is worth the reward.
“I’d rather leave myself two or three clubs back and hit a 7-iron into a par 4 instead of hitting a wedge where if you just get it off-line here and the ball is gone.
“You’re hitting it into jungle and you’re not going to be able to get it out. You can rack up a very big number very quickly.
“So being strategic and being smart with your play off the tee, especially, is very important. I can see why S.S.P. has done so well around here.
“You just keep hitting it down the middle, hit it 260, 250, 260 every single time, and if you do that, then you can do very well around this golf course.”
On the Ryder Cup fallout
“I’ve been following the sort of narrative coming out of of the Ryder Cup just like everyone else.
“Unfortunately, I think it takes away from what we focused on which is what an incredible performance it was by The European Team.
“So over the last two weeks, being able to watch the highlights and just see, especially those first two days, in the foursomes and the four-balls how got European Team were.
“The Americans would hit it close; we hit it closer. The Americans hole a putt and we hole a putt on top it and it happened every single time.
The unfortunate thing is people aren’t remembering that and they are remembering the week for the wrong reason.
“I would like to shift the narrative and focus on how good The European Team were and how proud I was to be part of that team to win an away Ryder Cup.’
On growing golf without compromising its standards
“I think it can. I think it can definitely grow. But you also want to keep traditions and the values that make golf, golf.
“You don’t want your sport to be unwelcoming to newcomers. I absolutely get that. But you also don’t want newcomers coming into the game and ruining centuries of traditions and values of what this game represents or what it up holds, as well.
“There has to be a balance. But I certainly think that golf can grow but it can grow in a way where the people that are coming into the game still respect and acknowledge that this is a little bit different than maybe other sports.
“And that’s okay. I don’t — you know, I say it in America all the time: Golf doesn’t need to be the NFL. It doesn’t need to be these other sports. Golf is golf, and that’s fine.
“The one great thing about golf, as well, is it’s more of a participation sport than other games or sports that are predominately, like, say, American football or basketball.
“Those are sports that are mostly watched, where golf and in some ways cricket in this country, they are games that are played.
“So, I’d love more people to watch golf. That would be amazing. But I would be more interested in getting more people to play the game.
“When people play the game, then they learn and they can acknowledge what golf is, what it represents, and the sort of etiquette and the values that you need to adhere to when you play the game.”
On Ryder Cup captaincy
“Some time, yes. Certainly not 2027. I hope I’m still playing at that point. But yeah, I would love to be the European Team captain at some point.
“But that will be beyond my playing days, or at least when my playing days are coming to an end and I’m not good enough to make the team or I make way for the new generation to come along.
“But yeah, absolutely, I would love to be a captain one day, and I feel very fortunate that I’ve had a front row seat playing under some of the best captains in history in the Ryder Cup.
“I think what Luke Donald has done the last two Ryder Cups has revolutionised the captaincy within Europe. There have been wonderful captains, all of them have been wonderful.
“But I think the time and the effort and the dedication that Luke Donald has put into the last four years, it’s been absolutely amazing.
“He has 100 percent respect of the entire team and everyone that’s worked for him and all be behind him. If I can be nearly as good as a captain as Luke Donald, I’ll have done a good job.
“So hopefully one day in the future, but I’d say not until the mid-2030s, hopefully, if I can keep playing well.”
Also read: You can’t try and overpower the Delhi Golf Club course, says Lahiri
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